Vibrent Health enhances and rebrands its consumer-facing digital health platform for data collection, recruitment and engagement of health research participants
Fairfax, VA., – Vibrent Health, a digital health technology startup dedicated to powering the future of precision health research, announced a rebranding of their participant-facing digital health research portal and mobile apps, formerly the Participant Portal, as the Participant Cloud. Researchers use the Participant Cloud, which is part of Vibrent Health’s Digital Health Solutions Platform, to remotely recruit and engage participants and collect health data from broad sources for decentralized health research.
“The ‘Participant’ terminology remains an important part of our product identification,” said Praduman “PJ” Jain, CEO of Vibrent Health. “One of our core values is making the health research experience for the participant seamless and engaging. We consider participants as partners in research, and therefore our tools must serve both the researcher and the participant.”
The Participant Cloud enables researchers to harness digital tools to meet the needs of diverse populations including underrepresented groups more effectively. Since its initial launch in 2017, Vibrent Health’s participant-facing platform has been tested on a massive scale, collecting, compiling and processing health data as an essential part of many national and global health research efforts, such as the National Institutes of Health’s million-person All of Us Research Program, comprised of a diverse cohort of which 80 percent of participants are from underrepresented populations and communities.
The Participant Cloud branding also emphasizes the fact that the research platform allows users to collect and access health research data remotely in real-time using the cybersecure Cloud with enhanced security measures that Vibrent has created and implemented in their products. Vibrent recognizes that data security, in particular the protection of personal data, is at the forefront of researchers and participants minds.
“As more people have become accustomed to using cloud technology, there is great confidence in its security,” said Jain. “Our Participant Cloud product provides robust privacy-protecting measures and adheres to the highest standards of cybersecurity to protect sensitive health data.”
The need for digital research products, such as Participant Cloud, has increased exponentially since the pandemic began in response to the need for remote and virtual research tools that allow health research to continue when researchers cannot physically interact with participants.
Participants interact with the platform via a web-based computer or mobile device. Instead of scheduling time for appointments and traveling to researcher facilities to provide their health information, participants can engage with one of Vibrent’s mobile applications at any time, without the inconvenience or cost of travel, increasing the potential for meeting people where they are and engaging more diverse people in health research.
The Participant Cloud is also designed to meet the needs of the population with lower resource access as it is capable of working with lower broadband settings and can be used on a basic mobile phone, so that even people without a computer can participate in health research.
The Participant Cloud also aims to improve participant engagement and retention by returning valuable personal information to participants, such genetic results. This component of the Participant Cloud may help incentivize participants to engage with health research and become more personally invested in the research. Participant drop-out from health research is a costly problem that frequently slows down the research process.
During the pandemic, Vibrent Health enhanced some features of the Participant Cloud that are especially useful for remote and virtual data collection, such as Advanced CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing), which has always been embedded into the platform but now comes with access to additional support materials such as training videos to help researchers get complete and accurate data. The company also added videos and other informative materials to the Participant Cloud, including instructional modules on frequently asked questions, such as how to log onto the platform or recover a forgotten password, to support frictionless interaction with the portal by researchers and participants.
“Social distancing has ushered in a massive switch to digital tools and cloud-based services,” said Jain. “Our platform has evolved since the pandemic, and we continue to make significant research and development investments in the Participant Cloud to meet the needs of our customers and participants.”
Read more here.