What another person's experience makes. In fact, consumer reviews are incredibly important more than 85% of online users based their buying decisions on other people's experiences and opinion. While this tactic is used in retail, it's not yet heard in pharmaceutical. Thus, Iodine came about.
Iodine is a startup app that aims to be the biggest database of drugs sold in the market, whether they are over the counter or prescription. Designed by a team led by Thomas Goetz, previously WIRED's executive editor, the app successfully launched last Wednesday, September 24, 2014.
The app performs a wide variety of consumer-driven functions. For example, users can now read no less than 100,000 unique reviews pulled from Google Consumer surveys. Users can also filter these comments using different parameters like age, condition, and gender.
The app also has a unique ability to determine average costs of these medications using the data available from NADAC, which forms part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NADAC provides wholesale costs of over 20,000 drugs sold in about 2,000 drugstores all over the country. Cost identification can then help consumers determine whether to buy generic or brand.
Moreover, the cost may also be calculated based on the formularies derived from several health insurance companies including but not limited to Aetna and Humana. Formularies are documents that list down medications paid for-or not-by the company.
Using the reports of "adverse effects" submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the app can also provide users with real-time data on anything related about the drug, including clinical trials.
Iodine is also capable of creating comparisons among drugs based on their risks and benefits for a better understanding about the medications.
In its website, the team behind Iodine hopes they can provide users with a comprehensive tool to help them make a more proactive action and decision with regard to their health.
The app can now be downloaded in iTunes.