TLDR:

1. We are planning to change our brand from Ethica Data to Avicenna Research.
2. This will be applied to our researcher-facing products by Oct. 9th, 2023.
3. Our participant-facing app will use Avicenna as a secondary name from Oct. 9th 2023 to Feb. 2024, and will be using it as the primary name until July 2024. The name Ethica will be dropped by July 2024.

I formed Ethica Data 10 years ago, in July 2013. Back then I was a graduate researcher in Computer Science and Public Health. My research was on using smartphones & sensors to capture accurate human contact networks. Smartphones were almost everywhere, but there wasn't as many software for them. My goal was to help researchers advance their work using smartphones and sensors. At the same time, I was working often with my university's Ethics board to get approval for my research. So when it came to pick a name for my new venture, Ethica Data was an obvious choice.

Over the past decade, my goal has become a lot more clear. We aim to improve health and clinical research using smartphones and wearable technology. These technologies can reduce participant burden, increase their engagement, provide equity to a wider, more diverse population, and in turn lead to a better research outcome.

To solidify this focus, we’ve decided to update our brand as well. Today, we start rebranding from Ethica Data to Avicenna Research. Our new name is borrowed from Ibn Sina, the Persian physician and philosopher of the 10th century, who is often considered as the father of modern medicine. Aside from my personal background ties to this name, this new name and identity reflects our focus on improving research in health and medicine.

Rebranding Roadmap

Changing a 10-year old brand is non-trivial (although, recently Musk proved it can also be done overnight!), especially considering many multi-year research projects that are currently supported by our software. To ensure this transition will be done smoothly with no impact on ongoing research projects, we have planned for a 12-month roadmap. Below I’ve explained this roadmap. We will also send reminders to potentially-affected teams before every milestone.

October 9th, 2023: Legal and Researcher-facing Interface Rebranding

By October 9th, we will change our legal identity to Avicenna Research. This may cause some problems with our ongoing contracts with institutions, which we will try to manage.

We will also update all records that are not participant-facing. This includes:

• Our website’s landing page (currently accessible via https://ethicadata.com/).
• Our researcher dashboard interface (https://ethicadata.com/app/rdash).
• Our documentation and other existing content (https://learn.ethicadata.com/).
• Our social media accounts (X or Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, etc.)

Please note that, wherever possible, we will show our former identity as Ethica Data to minimize potential confusion. Also, we will ensure that all previous links remain accessible, e.g. ethicadata.com URL and email addresses.

October 9th, 2023: Adding the brand to our participant app - Part 1

Also on October 9th, we will rename our participant app on Android, iOS, and web from “Ethica” to “Ethica (Avicenna)”. This way, while participants start to see the name “Avicenna” in the app, the name “Ethica” still will be dominant.

Feb. 26th 2024: Adding the brand to our participant app - Part 2

After 4 months, we will rename our apps from "Ethica (Avicenna)" to "Avicenna (Ethica)." Following this change, participants will still be able to find our app by looking for "Ethica," although the name "Avicenna" will be more prominent.

July. 29th 2024: Adding the brand to our participant app - Final Part

By the end of July 2024, we are planning to remove the name “Ethica” from our participant apps as well and only use the name “Avicenna”.

Wrap up

We are excited to continue our journey in health and clinical research under our new brand, and we believe it can solidify our focus on improving research outcomes by providing better experience for participants and researchers.

We understand that this rebranding can cause some trouble for those teams that have ongoing research projects with us. Our aim is to minimize these troubles by communicating our roadmap and leave ample time for any adjustments needed. If you have any concerns or questions, don’t hesitate to contact us via support@ethicadata.com or support@AvicennaResearch.com.