Soft-launched in the UK and US earlier this year, the app has steadily been building a following, and now sits as number 19 in the UK’s top medical apps, and the number one acne app in the UK and and US.
Cosmetics Design sat down with its co-founders, Dr Yoram Harth, a dermatologist specialising in acne, and Oded Harth, to find out more.
What’s driving the demand for this kind of acne app?
Acne is the most common skin condition, Yoram notes, with 7% of the population affected. This is mostly teenagers, but we’re now seeing a growing number of young women (20s, 30s, 40s) that suffer from acne too.
“People with acne face some confusion when they go to look for information on websites - it’s not personal, it’s commercial and biased with companies pushing their own products,” asserts Yoram.
“So the other option is to go to a dermatologist, but this will involve a wait of many months and the visit will be very short and will not give the patient the support needed to commit to the treatment, which usually demands several months and you’re totally on your own.
“I’ve seen as a dermatologist that many people were coming to after years of having acne, and they’ve tried all kinds of things that they buy in the supermarket and drug stores and often it’s not the right product, and usually they haven’t committed to the treatment.”
MD Acne, then, is designed as a supportive guide to take users through the treatment process, explain its founders, and plug the gap of consumers and patients treating themselves alone.
How does MD Acne work?
“MD Acne is an app that gives a full package solution for people with acne,” the founders explain. “It’s something we have all the time in our pockets - all you need to do is take a selfie of the skin and it uses image analysis to assert acne severity.
“Based on these results, and the demographic of the user - age, gender, location, etc. - it gives personalised results on what you need to do in terms of products and treatments, along with video tutorials and updates and reminders.”
Its uniquely distinctive feature, the founders believe, is its focus on supporting and motivating the user with regular push notifications, and every few days users can take another selfie and can build up a skin journal.
“Those types of motivation are the things that can make the treatment really successful, where the patient really treats themselves for long enough to get a good result.”
What’s the expansion plan?
The app launched initially in the US and UK, with a soft launch, and has spent its first few months gathering feedback from 20,000 users.
“In the last month, we got a version of the app that got really positive feedback from users. We think right now is the stage where we’re going to push to grow faster,” they explain.
“Now we have got to the place where we think the app is go, and we’re going to expand much faster in the next couple of months - we’re also thinking of expanding to Asia, to countries like China, where 100 million people have acne.”