Verily launched a free consumer health app to connect patients with personalized care recommendations based on their health data.
Within the app, called Verily Me, patients can be connected to licensed clinicians who review relevant medical records across multiple providers and health systems. Users can then use those health recommendations to inform conversations with their providers. The app is intended to identify care gaps and provide tailored health recommendations, Verily executives said.
“We offer Verily Me at no cost, and our goal is for it to be adopted broadly by the general public as a tool to have access to and engage in better preventative health management,” Myoung Cha, Verily’s chief product officer, said via email.
Users also have access to an artificial intelligence agent, Violet, to answer questions about their health record. Users can ask, ‘When was my last flu vaccination?’ or ‘Remind me what happened at my last doctor’s appointment?’ as examples. And, through the app, users can log their meals by submitting photos and then receive real-time feedback and nutrition tips.
The Verily Me app is available in beta through the Apple and Google Play app stores.
The Verily Me app also will be used by members of Verily’s Lightpath, a chronic disease and weight loss management program subsidized by employers, payers and pharmacy benefit managers. Onduo members will begin migration into the Lightpath program in a few weeks, Cha said.
“Lightpath members get support from health coaches and a dedicated, comprehensive care team of licensed providers when clinically indicated, including physicians, pharmacists, and registered dietitians, plus a 24/7 AI companion,” he said.
A Verily-sponsored survey by The Harris Poll found that 75% of Americans would like an app that provides personalized health recommendations from a healthcare provider and helps them better understand their health over time.
With a user’s consent, Verily’s affiliated provider group securely retrieves medical records from multiple health systems and health information exchanges (HIEs), Cha noted. “This may include information such as medications, conditions, procedures, immunizations, and test results, creating a cohesive, longitudinal picture of a person’s health,” he said.
“In addition, Verily Me can integrate health and wellness data from connected devices and apps through Apple HealthKit and Google Health Connect. On average, patients may see about nine years of medical history, though the amount and completeness of data vary. Not all providers participate in HIEs, and certain types of information—like paper records or sensitive categories such as mental health or fertility care—may not be shared by default,” he said.
Verily’s goal is to give patients and their care teams a comprehensive and secure view of health information while maintaining strict respect for privacy, consent and individual control, Cha noted.
“Verily takes the privacy and security of personal health information extremely seriously. Our products, including Verily Me, are built to meet healthcare data protection standards. The platform is designed to meet all applicable HIPAA requirements and is certified under internationally recognized security and privacy standards, including ISO 27001, 27017, and 27018,” he said.
The company uses a privacy-by-design framework that limits data collection to what’s necessary, encrypts all information in transit and at rest, enforces strict access controls and performs continuous security monitoring, according to Cha.
“We are transparent with users about how their information is used. Unlike general-purpose AI or chat applications, Verily Me operates in a regulated healthcare environment—user conversations and health data are not indexed by search engines, shared publicly, or used for unrelated purposes,” he said.
Cha asserts that Verily “combines the technical rigor of a leading technology company with the compliance, discipline and expertise of a healthcare organization.”
Launched in 2015, Verily began as a moonshot of Google X, and the Alphabet subsidiary has evolved into a data platform and AI company focused on precision health. The company has provided virtual care solutions to patients since 2018. Verily Me was built using Verily’s precision health platform, Pre, which transforms complex, multimodal data sets for use across AI-enabled healthcare, according to executives.
Through Verily Me, users also can consent to participate in Verily’s Lifelong Health Study, a real-world research registry.
“Lifelong builds upon the foundation of the Project Baseline Health Study, the longitudinal study Verily launched with Stanford, Duke and California Health and Longevity Institute in 2017, to better understand the many factors that contribute to long-term health,” Cha said. “Through our Viewpoint Evidence suite of RWD/RWE solutions, pharma and medtech partners can run IRB-reviewed sub-studies within the Lifelong Health Study, obtain access to deidentified data sets, and answer highly specific research questions.”
The Verily Me app makes study participation a more flexible, easy and convenient experience, according to the company.
The Lifelong Health Study marks a major shift from episodic studies tied to physical or decentralized research sites to a continuous, participant-centric model that can reach people, Verily executives said in a blog post. The study allows researchers to deploy new ePROs surveys, collect new information from connected wearables or even prompt participants to complete follow-up lab tests.
“Existing RWD is often like a low-resolution photograph with entire sections of pixels missing. By integrating high-frequency signals from devices and capturing day-to-day context directly from participants, Verily will help fill in those missing pixels, creating a much clearer and more actionable picture of individual health,” Erich Huang, M.D., Ph.D., Verily’s associate chief clinical officer, said in the blog post.