Sanofi is collaborating with Camoni - an Israeli social network for patients - to crowdsource ideas for a new mobile app for people with diabetes.

The company is running an open competition for app ideas, allowing Camoni participants to discuss and rate those submitted.

Ronnie Birnbaum, Sanofi Israel's general manager, said: “In order to bring an app to answer the needs of users in the best way, we chose a model based on the 'wisdom of crowds'.

“[We] invited diabetics, their families, friends and anyone who touches the disease to offer application ideas, contribute from personal experience and share with us their needs.”

The ultimate goal is, Birnbaum said, to be able to launch an app that would be the “first of its kind, created by and for diabetics”.

The three-week app contest and campaign, which began on July 10, is being managed by Israeli digital health agency e-Pochonder.

While Sanofi said that this type of crowdsourcing initiative was the first of its kind, the campaign is not the company's first foray into the world of mobile apps.

In fact, Sanofi was among the first in pharma to use the technology, with its diabetes arm developing first the GoMeals iPhone app in 2009 and then, more recently, the iBGStar app for its iPhone-compatible blood glucose monitor of the same name.

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