Gratiago: a first mobile MVP, a clinical study carried through

Gratiago: a first mobile MVP, a clinical study carried through

Co-Labs helped Gratiago build its first MVP — a native iOS and Android app with a notification system — the product on which the randomized clinical study GRACE-001 was run and completed, with results measured in real-world conditions.

‍

The problem: treatment slips between consultations

In chronic disease, it isn't the diagnosis that's missing — it's the day-to-day follow-through. A dose gets skipped, a doubt sets in, fear takes over, and the doctor is too far away to notice. Roughly one chronic patient in two doesn't take their treatment as prescribed (Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2025). In Europe, this non-adherence costs on the order of €125 billion a year and is linked to more than 200,000 avoidable deaths (OECD). For glaucoma alone — where adherence to eye drops is decisive — about 76 million people are affected worldwide (Tham et al., Ophthalmology).

These figures describe the market, not Co-Labs. They frame the job to be done: close the gap between the consultation and the dose.

The client's challenge: prove it, don't promise it

Gratiago had a conviction — that daily behavioral support improves adherence — and a precise need: to demonstrate it in real clinical conditions. That called for a real product first, in the hands of real patients, solid enough to carry a randomized study. Not a demo prototype, not a mockup: an app that patients (average age 63) use every day, reliable enough to measure what it actually changes.

What Co-Labs delivered

Co-Labs built Gratiago's first MVP:

• a native mobile app, iOS and Android, designed for an older, non-technical audience;
• a notification system — reminders and behavioral nudges — that keeps the support alive day to day, inside the frame the doctor has validated;
• a first version focused on glaucoma and adherence to eye drops, the study's clinical entry point.

The goal wasn't a marketing object; it was a product solid enough for a clinical study to run on. That's what went live.

The outcome: the GRACE-001 study

The app served as the support for GRACE-001, the first single-site randomized study in real-world clinical conditions, run with a favorable ethics opinion from the Hospital-Faculty Ethics Committee of UCLouvain / Saint-Luc (ref. B4032025000007).

Results measured in the study:

• 76.8% average adherence over 3 months, objectively measured by a connected device;
• +6.2 points versus a reminder-only app, peaking at +9.2 points in month 2;
• ~70% of patients kept using the app spontaneously after the study ended;
• 4.1 / 5 for satisfaction and ease of use.

These results belong to the study and its investigators. What they say about Co-Labs is simple and verifiable: the product we built was real enough, reliable enough, and used enough to carry a randomized study through to completion — and to stay in service afterward.

What the case proves

An MVP that didn't die in a drawer. The app is live today on the App Store and Google Play, and most of the study's patients kept it after the fact. We started from a clinical hypothesis and the gap between two consultations; we shipped a product that made it possible to measure, in real life, the effect it was after.

That's the line Co-Labs stands on: turning an intention into real software, fast, in a demanding domain where "close enough" doesn't pass.

Facts & attributions

• Co-Labs' contribution (claimed): design and build of the first MVP — native iOS + Android app and notification system.
• Clinical results (attributed to GRACE-001): 76.8% adherence · +6.2 pts vs reminder-only · ~70% spontaneous retention · 4.1/5 satisfaction. Single-site randomized study; ethics approval UCLouvain/Saint-Luc, ref. B4032025000007.
• Market context (third-party sources): non-adherence ~50% (Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2025) · ~€125B/year cost and 200,000+ avoidable deaths in Europe (OECD) · 76M people with glaucoma (Tham et al., Ophthalmology) · 1.4B adults with hypertension (WHO).
• Gratiago's ecosystem (the client's partners, not Co-Labs'): Théa Pharma, Oogartsen Zaventem, Mutualité Chrétienne, imec.istart, Innoviris.
• Framing: Gratiago is an adherence-support tool; it makes no diagnosis, doesn't replace the consultation, and works only within the frame validated by the doctor.