OptumHealth, one of the nation’s largest health and wellness companies, announced this week that it will release its OptumizeMe mobile application with exclusive features for the new Windows Phone 7 mobile smartphone platform. The app is designed to help people pursue their health goals through their own online social networks, where they can track their progress and issue fun fitness challenges to their friends, family and coworkers.
The app allows users to create and challenge each other to fitness competitions, and trade both encouragement and “digs” along the way. Users can network with friends using the app, or link to their existing social networks to create new fitness challenges. The application tracks their progress on challenges, and rewards them with virtual badges as they achieve their goals. OptumizeMe also uses the Windows Phone 7’s location capabilities to help fitness enthusiasts locate and join open challenges happening near them.
“If you’re the kind of person who lives life on the go, wants to increase your fitness and can’t resist a good challenge, OptumizeMe is the app for you,” said Rob Webb, CEO of OptumHealth Care Solutions. “It makes living a healthy lifestyle easier and more fun for people with Windows Phone 7 mobile devices by creating connections with friends who share similar fitness goals. Most of us already use our social networks to stay in touch with each other, so why not use them to share the experience of getting healthier together?”
A recent New England Journal of Medicine report found that that healthy behavior can actually spread through social connections, and OptumizeMe links with online social networks like Facebook to make healthy activity a social activity. OptumizeMe users can post updates to their Facebook wall to allow friends to monitor the person’s progress and post messages of support.
OptumizeMe is available now, free of charge, at the Windows Phone Marketplace, and is part of Microsoft Windows Phone 7 showcase.