“Health Score” – Deutsche Telekom and QUENTIQ are launching a new measurement unit for fitness and health

25.11.2011 16:44

New online service calculates vitality from sport and body values / Smartphone app records activity in real time / Test procedure developed in collaboration with scientists from Zurich University Hospital and MIT

How healthy and fit am I really? Deutsche Telekom and the Swiss company QUENTIQ are answering this with a new online offering at the beginning of 2012. There are already internet services that record sporting activity or individual health values. However, only those who keep an eye on as many values as possible can have a comprehensive check. And it works like this: Customers record nutritional behavior, stressful situations, sleep phases or fitness activities using a free app, a smartphone or other networked devices such as a digital scale or a Vitadock blood pressure monitor. The fitness app, for example, offers a selection of sports and calculates in real time how intense the activity was based on the measured duration and distance. If you also wear a compatible pulse rate monitor, you can add this to your values. The different apps will be available for several smartphone operating systems. If you don't want to use a smartphone and app, you can also enter the activities by hand.

How healthy am I really? This is what the Health Score says.

Users upload the measured values to www.quentiq.com. The system evaluates the data and adds it to the personal profile. Page 2 of 4 The system calculates the Health Score from all the data – a value between 1 and 1,000. The higher the number, the better. However, the health score is not a static quantity: if users are active and do sports, it increases, otherwise it falls. The QUENTIQ software calculates the value on a comparison basis that includes 70 million years of clinically determined data.

Scientifically determined procedure

Scientists at Zurich University Hospital developed the principle of this health and fitness test in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In addition to vital data such as age, height, gender, weight and blood pressure, the QUENTIQ software also takes into account the user's lifestyle (tobacco and alcohol consumption), his sporting activities and a self-assessment. Since this is sensitive information, all data is transmitted and stored securely and encrypted.

Fitness comparison via social networks

Members can also invite friends from social networks to the site. This way they can compare themselves with relatives, friends or colleagues or challenge them to competitions. Users decide for themselves who can view their data. Members can also set their own goals such as 'exercise twice a week' or a half marathon. In the future, customers should also be able to win prizes for achieving particularly good values.

Health can be fun

“More and more of our customers want to be fit and are taking their health into their own hands. This is an exciting new market for us. Here we can show how intelligent networking turns into clever product ideas. We will introduce more of this in the future,” says Dr. Axel Wehmeier, Head of Deutsche Telekom's Health Division. Page 3 of 4 Peter Ohnemus, Managing Director of QUENTIQ, adds: “We want to inspire people to improve their own well-being in a simple and playful way. Health can be fun. The new technologies offer many possibilities for this.”

Intelligent health networks are a growth area for Telekom

Deutsche Telekom sees the healthcare sector as a strategic growth area that should contribute to additional sales of 1 billion euros by 2015 as part of the group's intelligent networks strategy. Telekom offers doctors, health insurance companies and clinics medical services related to digital healthcare. This also includes the so-called second health market with products for private care and fitness. In this field, Telekom shops had already successfully started selling health measuring devices from the manufacturer Medisana in August.