Feedback needed: my pacing app w/ armband (Visible alternative)

J

jonathanb987

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Hi, my name is Jonathan. I'm severe and have been sick for five years now. I am 95% bedbound. It helps me a lot to pace using a heart rate monitor, but I got tired of paying a subscription for Visible, especially when I feel like it is lacking key features that help me pace. So I decided to build my own app called PaceWillow.

With the app, you wear a heart rate band, the same technology as Visible. In fact, you can even use deactivated Visible bands with my app. You get a notification when you go over your heart rate limit. Then the app shows how much energy you have left represented by a battery. It tells you how strong your baseline is at the beginning of each day. It's all automated so you don't have to answer lengthy questionnaires about your symptoms or anything like that.

We can't see any of your data. It all stays on your phone. It's a one-time price of $89. It comes out on Android and iPhone December 16. Android beta testing is open now for people in the US at pacewillow.com/beta.

Today screen
Rests tab
Chart tab


I'd really like to hear your feedback and suggestions.

Thanks,
Jonathan

(PaceWillow isn't connected to Visible Health Inc., which makes Visible.)
 
jonathanb987 said:
Then the app shows how much energy you have left represented by a battery. It tells you how strong your baseline is at the beginning of each day. It's all automated so you don't have to answer lengthy questionnaires about your symptoms or anything like that.
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Hi Jonathan!

What is the basis of the «energy left» concept? And what’s «strength of baseline» at the beginning of the day?
 
Utsikt said:
Hi Jonathan!

What is the basis of the «energy left» concept? And what’s «strength of baseline» at the beginning of the day?
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The energy left indicator uses formulas to determine at what heart rate ranges you are in light activity and exertion. It also determines how strong your body is starting on any particular day. It factors this all together to predict how much energy you might have for the day and tracks how it drains throughout the day based on your heart rate and other metrics.

For the baseline indicator, it looks at your data from last night and compares it with the previous four weeks. It uses a weighted formula that factors in resting heart rate, HRV, sleep, energy usage over the past two days, and how well your heart rate settled during sleep. It uses these to determine how well your body is starting the day off.
 
Why is there any reason to believe that any of these measurements can inform the user of how much they can do or how they are currently doing?

And maybe more importantly, how would this add more insight than just asking the user how the last day was and how they feel now? From what I can remember, other similar approaches have failed to demonstrate that they add any value beyond what you get from those two questions, and you don’t need an app for that.
 
Yes, there isn't strong proof yet. It's also worth noting this is a wellness tool, not a medical device/program.

The app does ask those two questions. Every morning and evening it asks how you feel, and it's optional. So it's not meant to replace them.

For me the main thing the band adds is timing. Asking how yesterday went only tells me after the fact, and PEM often shows up a day or two later. The heart rate alert tells me while I'm doing something. A lot of the time I don't notice I'm overdoing it until later.
Over 250,000 people use Visible, and a lot of them pay an expensive monthly subscription, so people are finding something useful in it (I know I did, and so have my friends). I know that isn't proof it works. That's part of why I didn't want to charge a subscription.

My beta testing users record both the check-in answers and the band data, so I'm planning to look at whether the band predicts bad days better than the answers alone.
 
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