It’s a brilliant niche. MotherKnows will interact with the healthcare system (your physician, hospital, insurer, etc.) on your behalf to procure a copy of the medical record, store it, analyze it and make the information available to you on-demand. Anyone who has tried getting their child’s immunization record will agree that the conventional interaction is a sub-optimal customer service experience at best. So having someone else do it for you is worth paying for.

Once collected, the information is available in a PHR manner – view meds, problems, allergies, immunizations, growth charts in one place; create emergency cards; get reminders; mobile access, etc. But the key to MotherKnows’ viability, in my view, is being the authorized agent for painful extraction of medical records. As long as the pricing is right (which, at $19-$98/year, is in the right range) it will gain traction.

It’s a prudent strategy to market it initially to parents as a way to keep the records straight for their precious progeny. But I don’t see why it can’t be extended to adult healthcare consumers themselves. I’d like to be able to get my medical data all in one place, hopefully showing me trends found in my quasi-annual physical exams and labs. Today in the patient population, the motivated few try to save copies of records; and the enlightened few go one step further and manually key the data into an online PHR like Healthvault. In either case manual labor and discipline is required. Perhaps having a real-world service (of paper record collection) is what really can make a difference to PHR uptake by consumers. Hopefully, MotherKnows will reach beyond just child medical records in future.

The overall idea of patients paying an agency to wrest to their medical records from providers point to the underlying systemic inefficiencies. Theoretically, there are solutions on the horizon. An enterprise EHR used by care providers could pass the relevant info into a PHR accessible by patients. And if they change providers, a community-wide Health Information Exchange (HIE) could still enable patients to be the custodian of thier own information in another system. But we are not there yet.

The unmet need for electronic systems (like PHRs) to interface with the physical world (i.e. bricks and mortar organizations and paper processes) is very real. Till every end-point in healthcare delivery is digitized and interoperability is no longer a pipe dream, we’ll need services that handle real-world complexities. Take companies like eHGT who are already in this ‘record retrieval services‘ niche. By actually having real account managers who can get imaging records from facilities, they elevate the value proposition of an “Image Exchange” to new level. The phenomenon exists outside of healthcare too. The now defunct Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) site was a volunteer effort to bridge the gap between virtual demand and physical supply of genealogy records.

HealthLoop was founded by Jordan Shlain, MD to address outpatient transition to home-based care. The service is in very early stages, and the site explains little about exactly what it provides. All I could find was “… (it) enables medical practices to efficiently monitor signs and symptoms, and communicate with patients during the recovery process“. So I’m guessing the core is case management and communication functionality, with perhaps some way for patient to input their vitals (hopefully it’s not manual data entry). Healthloop is in the embryonic stages, so I won’t attempt to read the tealeaves any further.

Potential issues for HealthLoop are low barrier to entry and powerful incumbents. If they choose to pursue, big EHR vendors can potentially create a much more comprehensive and integrated solution for care transition management. Today the inpatient/outpatient care is digitally captured in EHRs anyway, and theoretically comes coupled with PHRs. So care transition becomes one of the natural value propositions of the EHR-PHR continuum. Besides EHRs, HIEs are the other upcoming intermediary that may find this space relevant. It makes business sense for HIEs to offer care transition management as a paid-service.

The underlying space of care transition is valid enough that startups in this space have a chance to be viable. Especially given that currently very few EHRs or HIEs are explicitly and completely tackling it.

PS: Read more about care transitions on the National Transitions of Care Coalition (NTOCC) website.

According to the National Association for Home Care, about 12 million people in this country receive care from more than 33,000 home health care providers. The market is made up of few large, publicly traded companies (see LHCG, AFAM, AMED stocks for example) and many small/mid-size players. The challenges faced by these companies are typical of those with field-based employees: scheduling the visits, then figuring out if their employee actually visited the patient, if they did then what was the real time and mileage, ensuring the data collected during visit is archived and accurate, etc.

Which brings me to CellTrak. It was founded in 2006 and delivers mobile-based automation to Home Healthcare agencies. I think it’s a brilliant application of healthcare information technology for alleviating self-reported information issues and paper-processes in a niche market. Given that everyone carries a phone today, using mobile modules to increase compliance and productivity makes a lot of sense for a field-based business. Some examples of the modules available:

• Care Plan Management
• GPS and Directions
• Time and Attendance
• Travel Time and Mileage
• Supply Management
• Alerting and Messaging
• Scheduling
• Nurse Care
• Wound Care

Solving logistical issues like location, time capture, attendance, inventory etc. is pragmatic. But providing modules around clinical care is the more interesting strategy from my perspective. Usually, software solutions that enable care documentation and collaboration are associated with either care-delivery enterprises (e.g. fixed location hospitals using EHRs) or with patients themselves (e.g. PHRs). Neither of those have a particularly critical need to be consumable in a mobile form-factor- that is just a nice-to-have functionality. CellTrak has found a special need where the inherent care delivery workflow necessitates even the clinical Healthcare IT solution to be exclusively mobile. It is a good example of the hidden corners within the complex maze of healthcare system which require thinking outside the traditional bounds.

Other examples of using exclusively mobile-based electronic health records are mostly restricted to public health context in developing countries (see ChildCount for example). That skew is mostly due to the field-based nature of public health and mobile being the primary means of connectivity in emerging economies. With CellTrak, we see the same technology paradigm tackling the problems of a conventional health industry segment in a developed country.

CellTrak partners with some EHR (Cerner, Allscripts) and wireless providers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon) currently. I expect that the future iterations of most enterprise EHRs would include incorporating a solution like CellTrak which enables running operations in the field and  seamlessly connects health information to/from a mobile workforce.

Sure all this can be a simple iPhone app (maybe there is already one out there) or even a one-line cryptic entry in your google calendar. My point is not to critique the utility of an independent website to track one’s sex life. I’m reflecting on the overall trend of niche health and wellness ‘trackers’ (read my previous posts about FitBit, Proactive Sleep, ZeaLog, Qwitter). Given the myriad sexual disorders (e.g. Erectile Dysfunction) and their probable causes, an application like this could provide rich history for clinicians. Overall, it underscores the importance of web 2.0 technologies in enabling consumers to keep granular, accurate health records.

Update: Few weeks after writing this post, I found a number of mobile apps (with integrated online version) that let you count/track anything you want. Few examples: TallyZoo, Dayta, Daytum, TheCarrot. There are also multiple websites that let you track and analyze anything- Graphomatic, Kibotzer, Track-n-Graph, Me-trics, LifeMetric, DailyDiary.

Practice Fusion’s is free. Free software, free hosting, free service. It is  supported by ‘non-intrusive’ ads. They have figured out a way to utilize Google Adsense APIs in a way that is compliant with HIPAA, i.e. doesn’t adversely affect patient privacy. Their CEO said in a 2007 interview that Practice Fusion will provide advertisers with basic demographic information about the physicians who view the ads – such as their city and specialty – but will not reveal names. If the users don’t want ads, they have an option to pay $100/month/provider to make them go away. As for the lineage, the company is backed by SalesForce both in terms of investment and advisory board. I guess that is where they inherit the ‘online, real-time, risk-free, on-demand’ marketing message.

I’m an absolute fan of free software, and believe in the utopian dream of free, ubiquitous EMRs. But I scratching my head on how exactly does an EMR work with an ad-supported model. Fact 1 – Doctors (esp. private practice) doing electronic documentation want to minimize distractions and click on as little items as possible. Fact 2 – Google Adsense sends you a check only if the users click on an ad. Those two facts are contradictory. How many doctors in their right mind will take time out in the middle of care delivery to click on an ad? I’ll bet none. Not many will pay $100 either.

There is some evidence that they charge some unpublicized fees ($50/month/provider “support” fee according to this commenter at another blog Note: Updated: See Emily’s comment to this post).  Practice Fusion claims their user base is now up to 18,000 and they are the “fastest growing EMR” but those sound like marketing tactics rather than hard facts. For example- This press release says that they are “fastest growing ” with 1300% growth rate. Well that is perhaps because they are comparing two convenient times – in early 2008 they had about 1000 users, and in early 2009 they had reached 13,000.

I’ll try not to judge them based on unverified complaints and odd press-releases, but I seriously doubt that good, competitive Healthcare IT software and it’s support can be sustained solely on the basis of only an ad-supported model.

• My Health – An application to store your basic health information (allergies, meds, diagnosis, emergency contacts, and a twitter-ish 140 char Health Log). Available as a 99¢ iPhone app or a free online dashboard.
• If Found+ – A 99¢ iPhone app that can display a short message and contact info on the wallpaper of a locked iPhone.
• My Emergency Info – Another 99¢ app that essentially does the same this as If Found+ but instead of a short message, you can show ‘summary health info’. (So how is this different if I choose to write health info as the message in If Found+? I’m not sure.)
• Close Call – A free iPhone app that apparently does the same thing as If Found+ and My Emergency Info. It displays important emergency contact info as a part of wallpaper on a locked iPhone. Don’t know how that is different from the other two 99¢ apps.

Polka is the first funded company created at the Lab2Market progam at UCSD Rady School of Management and they started around mid-2008. I think they are certainly on the right track since the fast-growing, 24X7 access mobile platform is ripe for healthcare information storage and communication.  Except that I’m lost at the product differentiation and pricing level. In terms of competition, there are other In-Case-of-Emergency category apps available for the iPhone like Easy I.C.E for 99¢, EMT ICE for $1.99, Health n Me Pro for $2.99. None of them do any better job at it, though.

There are rough edges to what Polka offers today (tried their online dashboard.. not particularly impressive) but that may be understandable given that they are relatively new startup. iPhone apps are fine, but I think online dashboard may be a stretch unless there is a really ground-breaking, never-before feature that they can offer. Why not integrate with Google Health/Healthvault for the online PHR-like functionality right out of the box?

September 2010 Update: Polka.com doesnt work anymore. Although the applications are still available on iTunes store.

Myca plans to ride that wave. It’s an outpatient EMR and Practice Management system built with a social networking perspective. Its core emphasis is on enhancing the physician-patient communication and provide a shared ‘dashboard’ that both can utilize. As a patient, one can schedule appointments (or cancel) online, pay with credit card, setup email/video consults, access your record, etc. The service is based on a $35 monthly fee with physician charging $100-$200 depending on the complexity of complaint (see breakdown here).

Using Myca platform, any PCP can setup a subscription-based, consumer-oriented primary care practice. The first such practice is called HelloHealth, located in couple of neighborhoods of New York city. HelloHealth is co-founded by Myca’s Chief Concept Officer (what??) Jay Parkinson who attained fame with his unconventional anti-establishment practice approach couple of years back.

I like the concept. It empowers PCPs to get off the hamster wheel of insurance and invest time in patients. Given enough competition and market acceptance, tools like these can make the old ‘Boutique Medicine’ concept more affordable and efficient. If nothing else, its a sign of service innovation in an orthodox industry.

PS: I’ve been running into a lot of these niche medical practices based on Boutique/Concierge Medicine. They dont have a direct relation to Healthcare IT, but point to an important trend that will utilize IT at its core. Here is an ongoing list of such practices: Qliance in Seattle, Crossover Healthcare in Southern California, MD2 (NYC, Chicago, Portland, Bellevue, San Francisco, Seattle),…

What a great startup idea. Service demand can be tapped easily since users are searching the web for highly specific keywords (almost all include the keyword “trials”, so bit of SEO and keyword advertising would direct the traffic effectively). Other sources are the rapidly growing PHR platforms like Google Health and Microsoft Healthvault- both encourage developers to write apps that provide such value-added services based on user’s health information. Supply is readily available on ClinicalTrials.gov, a government-sponsored online public registry of clinical trials in US.

TrialX.org is completely free for users (patients). They let investigators create free accounts to post their trial information directly, but charge a fee for providing access to the interested potential trial enrollee. It’s hard for trial investigators to find eligible patients who are motivated to stick around for the complete trial. TrialX solves both the problems for them.

Imagine the possibilities if this service gets integrated into CIS vendor products. A patient coming in for advanced  breast cancer treatment can be flagged right at admission and be given the option to enroll in an experimental drug trial right then, if they so choose. If nothing else, it’ll give the medical research community a much more real-time opportunity to advance the science.

September 2010 Update: Just read about another startup in the same space- MyTrus. They have little information on their website, so not much to discuss at this time.

The idea is that patients enter their information (age, insurance, complaint, history etc.) via its touch-screen interface in the waiting room while ‘enjoying’ drug company sponsored educational material related to their situation. PhreesiaPads are provided free of charge to the physician, and tab is picked up by drug companies. The company claims several benefits like legible information, shorter visits, less errors, reduced data entry, reduced staff time etc. Whatever.

Phreesia is a part of inevitable invasion of electronic medical record-keeping, but my personal irk is with the blatant way in which our healthcare system is giving more and more direct patient access to pharma companies. There is a fine line between ‘educating’ patients and taking advantage of their emotional state to promote your product. Direct-to-consumer-advertising (DTCA) adds unnecessary cost to our already overburdened system. No wonder DTCA is illegal in all developed countries except US and New Zealand.

Collecting patient input electronically is a great idea. It would go a long way in complex, long-standing conditions that require regular physician interaction; like chronic pain, palliative care, geriatrics, etc. In all these cases there is a lot to be gained by understanding patient preferences/attitude regarding treatment and how it affects their quality of life. Often patients can’t verbalize everything they feel and physicians run short on time. Having a tool like PhreesiaPad can enable valuable insights without affecting the clinic workflow much. Not to mention how great it’d be to have such data integrated into the EMR that the clinic is using.

They have various analytical graphs and trends, messaging, mobile edition and even twitter integration. I think the concept would have been much more powerful if there was a way to eliminate manual data entry by patients. So integration with blood glucose monitors that can sync data to the website would be great- perhaps using platforms like Healthvault?

Side note: Diabetes is perhaps one of the most well-represented diseases online. There are a ton of resources out there- David Mendosa has a good list here.

The functionality includes a neat body map (screenshot below), notes and basic reporting. The business model includes a premium service (starting at $6.95 for 1 month) that exapnds the list of features to symptoms, reminders, advanced reports etc.

The concept falls in the realm of ‘disease management‘ solutions and is shows what future Healthcare IT solutions are going to be: specific and customized. An aggregation of tools like ReliefInsite can jumpstart a real PHR trend, one that is sustainable. Better still, this begs to be an application on the upcoming PHR platforms like Google Health and/or Microsoft Healthvault.

Update: On Feb 16, 2010 Relief In Site was acquired by PatientsLikeMe. It’s makes a lot of sense, in my view.

Besides searching for personalized health information in natural prose, MyDailyApple users can get relevant medical news and community opinions for their condition. It utilizes the same technology as Curbside.MD (Praxeon’s website for evidence based clinical search for physician users).

MyDailyApple is a Google Health integrated service, which means Google Health users can share their information between the two services.