HSR Patients App — Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterised by painful nodules, abscesses, and fistulas that significantly impacts patients' quality of life. Early diagnosis and timely treatment are essential — yet patients face prolonged misdiagnosis and limited access to reliable, disease-specific information.

Swiss4ward developed the HSR Patients App in partnership with the Swiss Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation — a patient-centred mobile application available in English, French, German, and Spanish across iOS and Android. The app provides structured disease information covering diagnosis, lifestyle adjustments, dietary guidance, wound management, and patient support.

Independent peer-reviewed recognition

In a systematic review published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (2025), researchers from the Department of Dermatology at the University Hospital Würzburg conducted a comprehensive search across Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and the internet to identify and evaluate all available patient-centred apps for hidradenitis suppurativa. Out of 29 proposed apps assessed, only two patient-centred HS apps met the inclusion criteria — the HSR Patients App developed by Swiss4ward was identified as one of the two.

The two apps were evaluated by 20 physicians and 27 patients using validated mobile health quality instruments including the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS), the user version of the MARS (uMARS), and the German Mobile App Usability Questionnaire (G-MAUQ).

Publication

Glatzel C, Dege T, Glatzel B, Goebeler M, Presser D, Schmieder A.

Identifying and Evaluating Mobile and Web Apps for Patients to Manage Hidradenitis Suppurativa: Systematic Search in App Stores and Content Analysis.

JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 2025;13:e69030.

DOI: 10.2196/69030

Full text: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12400124/