A key component, and element that will bring together many of its initiatives, is the Live HealthSmart Alabama app, which Dr. Rubin Pillay describes as the healthy-living equivalent of the Waze traffic app.

Pillay, the UAB Health System’s chief innovation officer and co-leader of the Live HealthSmart Alabama technology and innovation team, explains that whereas the Waze app guides you to a particular physical destination, here the destination is those three program objectives: nutrition, physical activity, and prevention & wellness.

Once it is fully launched, the Live HealthSmart Alabama app will direct the user to facilities for engaging in exercise and to specials on healthy foods at local markets. It shares opportunities to sign up for cooking classes and offers nutritious recipes. The information provided is based on a few points of data that the user has entered—physical location being one of those.

For example, for prevention and wellness, the app can navigate the user to health clinics offering free blood-pressure checks or provide information regarding COVID-19 testing and vaccination.

Pillay would ultimately like to see the data provided feed into electronic medical record systems so that when a physician assesses her patient, she’ll have not only a clinical view but the relevant social determinants. “I think that’s a powerful combination that’s not currently available,” Pillay says.

And as with much under the Live HealthSmart Alabama umbrella, the long-term goal is to make the app available far beyond Birmingham. Currently, the app is in beta-testing. If you would like to be added to our email list—and notified when it is available for download on the Apple or Google Play store—please email Jessica Snyder (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).