iFast Mobile App

With the blessing of the holy month of Ramadan, some friends have again expressed anxiety over the length of the daily fasts.

The summer months with the longer and hotter daytimes are of course much more difficult to fast than the winter months, particularly here in the United Kingdom.

We want to follow our religious duties, but also maintain good health during the fast. Long gone are the days of consuming high quantities of deep fried foods that so many of us grew up with in the 80s and 90s, yet still we sometimes struggle.

To aid, the Smartphone generation has seen a plethora of mobile apps designed to enhance and improve an individual's spirituality over this period. What I refer to as first generation apps are those which typically benefit from certain hardware features, such as a compass to point you in the direction of prayer.

Additionally, software features seem to be a generic port from PC/Mac offerings, such as prayer times and alarm clocks, Quran and Hadith quotes, supplications, all redressed with different user interfaces, many good, some less so.

Within this eco-system sits the front of the curve where more advanced offerings are made, such as restaurant locaters for where one can have iftar - the evening meal - and even others that list restaurants where one can find prayer facilities.

In fact perhaps the most interesting for me, is one app named Instadeen, which is a take on existing photo sharing solutions where when a photo is taken a Qur'anic verse can be added to it:- text on a pretty photo is a model that works very well across social media.

Last year something unexpected occurred. Midway through Ramadan I had fallen ill, dehydrated and suffered immensely. While I have many friends who are qualified medical doctors, I had remembered that an acquaintance of mine, Dr. Kassem, was delivering a talk on Fasting in Ramadan at The City Circle - an open networking platform for Muslims with weekly talks for all - in London.

A few messages later some extremely beneficial advice had been tendered which, after implementation, enabled my body to 'reset' and I had returned to fasting as if nothing had happened.

Not every person is able to access medical advice at a couple of clicks on a phone or on a computer, so why not take benefit of one of the fastest growing areas of business, mobileHealth, and create a more meaningful second generation mobile app which includes a Ramadan service?

Innovative Perspectives

Earlier this year while at Mobile World Congress, I was exposed first hand to the next generation of mobile hardware and software solutions.

As sensors of all manners appear within mobile phones today; some to check one's heart rate, some to regulate insulin, while others even to check body temperature variations. It occurred to me that much more sophisticated device offerings were coming to the market.

In terms of software, and within the context of health and exercise management, a number of mobile apps already exist, such as MyFitnessPal which is a great tool that helps you manage your calorie count. So I wonder then why there is no App which helps men and woman balance their diets specifically in the context of fasting in Ramadan?

Moreover, why is there no premium paid service that would enable any individual to send a message directly to a qualified doctor or dietician - not as a substitute to the their personal doctor or dietician - someone who can respond to and answer questions on a person's diet, thus improving their condition while fasting?

Mango Health is an app service that rewards individuals for adhering to a pre-approved medical plan. As with any 'diet' people tend to Yo-Yo, one week they follow it, the next they do not. Of course for Muslims during the month of Ramadan in specific, few if any would ever Yo-Yo.

But to help Mango Health users remain on their plan, users are incentivized with points. So perhaps a similar model can be offered to Muslims who by virtue of it being Ramadan will fast, but perhaps can help improve the quality of their diet, reduce excess and indulgence by adopting a pragmatic and practical approach to breaking their fast: what to eat afterwards, what to have for the pre-morning meal, and so on.

Much of this information does of course already exist and the National Health Service in the UK has provided some exceptional literature to this effect. But this is the crux of innovation, improving the quality of life for people, making information and engagement easier, thus adding real value, the benefit of which extends beyond Ramadan, as many Muslims will fast ad-hoc days throughout the year and so the service can run, albeit to a lesser capacity, outside of this time of year as well.

It's currently far too complex to deliver such a service with the correct balance of checks in place to ensure it is done properly. There is however nothing stopping innovative entrepreneurs from pooling together such a service for Ramadan 2015, perhaps in multiple languages. Personalization is after all the future so why not with regards to managing our diets, at perhaps the most spiritual time of the year?

Entities 0 Name: Ramadan Count: 7 1 Name: Mango Health Count: 2 2 Name: The City Circle Count: 1 3 Name: Dr. Kassem Count: 1 4 Name: Instadeen Count: 1 5 Name: United Kingdom Count: 1 6 Name: Mobile World Congress Count: 1 7 Name: London Count: 1 8 Name: UK Count: 1 9 Name: National Health Service Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1qKxWzG Title: Ramadan Poses Test to Muslim Players at World Cup Description: This World Cup in Brazil has drawn thousands of Muslim fans - from Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Nigeria and beyond - and Ramadan, which is pegged to a lunar calendar and begins a bit earlier in the Gregorian calendar each year, is due to start just as the second round opens.