Independent Health today announced it is deepening its  partnership with Brook, the innovative Seattle-based health-technology company that helps  individuals take better care of their health. Based on the expanding needs of its users, Brook is broadening its feature-set to give actionable tools to augment the personalized, on-demand health support provided 24-hours a day, from real health experts.
“We’re excited to announce a new feature in the Brook Health Companion app that makes it easier than ever for users to log their meals,  instantly receive detailed nutrition information about their food, and get expert advice in a way that’s never been done before,” said Oren Nissim, Brook CEO.
Unlike other food-logging apps which can be very tedious to use, requiring users to do a lot of work manually entering food and interpreting the data on their own, Nissim said Brook makes it simple. “Brook’s new Food Journal with Meal Intelligence Technology allows users to add their food in their own words to instantly receive easy-to-understand nutrition information and the expert support to translate that information, providing feedback and steps for improvement. For example, just tell Brook that you had a turkey sandwich and salad for lunch.  Brook’s technology takes it from there.  Brook has made it that simple.”
“Food is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Research shows logging food regularly helps people make better food choices, lose more weight, and help keep it off long term,” Michael W. Cropp, M.D., President & CEO, Independent Health.
In addition, Dr. Cropp said the Brook team – which includes registered dietitians, certified diabetes educators, and nutritionists – are available every day of the year to answer questions and “help implement the small changes that can add up to big results.”
Nissim said the Food Journal with Meal Intelligence Technology feature builds on the mission of Brook.  “Understanding what our users need to give them the most valuable and advanced tools to empower better health choices is our relentless pursuit.”
Nissim said this new feature is powered by an advancement to the Brook technology, a natural language understanding component.  “The new ‘natural language understanding’ recognizes and processes the information provided by the user, resulting in a simplified food-logging experience that provides meaningful insights and recommendations,” Nissim explained.
 
The capabilities and benefits of Brook’s new Food Journal feature include:
  • Simplified food logging and the ability to quickly log food from commonly consumed foods
  • Detailed nutritional information, including calories, macro- and micro-nutrient details
  • Insightful dashboards of logged foods and nutritional information
The Brook Health Companion app was originally designed to help people with diabetes manage their health.  Besides their food- and health-tracking technology, Brook also offers on-demand support from real health experts for people across the health spectrum; from those who manage chronic conditions to high-performers looking for health and wellness support.
The new food and nutrition feature helps users gain more knowledge about food, whether they are managing a chronic condition like diabetes or want a better understanding of how the foods they eat impact their general health.
 
The Brook app, which is HIPAA compliant, has been available and supporting Independent Health members at no charge for several years. It was previously available to non-Independent Health members for a monthly fee of $24.99.
 
On April 1, 2020, Independent Health and Brook announced they were collaborating to make the Health Companion app available to anyone in the entire region at no cost, to support the community during the Covid-19 crisis. 
The two companies also said they are continuing to provide the Western New York community with free access to the Brook Personal Health Companion app during the COVID-19 health emergency, as was first announced in early April.
 
Individuals can download the Brook Health Companion app from the App Store or Google Play, or visit https://www.independenthealth.com/Coronavirus/Brook.