Mobile Health: AboutOne Provides On-the-go Personal Medical Information

This is a guest post by Stephanie Baum, the Philadelphia Bureau Chief for MedCityNews.com, where this article originally appeared. Reprinted with permission.

A web-based organizer is helping users keep their healthcare records and data in one place to make it easier to access the information when they need it.

Joanne Lang, who was a software executive at SAP and worked with cloud computing, said AboutOne was sparked by a medical emergency involving her son when she realized she was not able to readily give the medical staff critical information they needed. With three more sons, she wanted to make sure her family’s information would be easily accessible, especially in time-sensitive situations.

Lang’s company is headquartered in Philadelphia with a development and customer support office in Utah.

Among the data users can enter are immunization records, prescription medication and when it needs to be refilled, allergies, medical conditions, upcoming appointments or reminders about appointments that need to be made, such as a mammogram, and other details that one tends not to think about until there’s a pressing need for the information. The data can be entered or synchronized from personal calendars and files.

The company was founded in June 2010 and launched the organizer in March 2011. It is geared to mothers who most often organize the household information. It worked with Microsoft to develop the initial organizer and is working with the software company for the second generation of the organizer.

The second generation of the web app,AboutOne 2.0,will include an improved interface and additional entries for information like blood type and is scheduled to be launched during Philly Tech Week at the Women in Tech Summit. An app for the Windows Phone is scheduled to be launched next week with apps for iPhone and Android to be released later this year. A gaming component will also be added later this year, giving users a “challenge of the day” to encourage them to utilize the organizer and reward them with points that can lead to a gift card if they successfully perform the required tasks. Additional functions will be rolled out throughout the year.

In the U.S., where insurance plans frequently change when people move to a new company, the organizer is intended to cut down on the amount of time people spend gathering that information. It is intended to be more dynamic and intuitive than other organization tools on the market.

“You can enter the information in tiny pieces as it happens,” said Lang. That information can be collected in short notes from a meeting with a physician describing a child’s condition or that of another family member.

Lang also sees scope for the organizer to address other healthcare and wants to work with insurers to develop a program for children in foster care to centralize their healthcare records, since they tend to move around. It could also be used by shelters for runaway children.

At the end of last year, Lang’s company raised $1.6 million in series A financing round led by Golden Seeds. Lang likens her search for investors to finding a husband, and wanted to be certain it was a good match. Lang has also received funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Mid Atlantic Investment Group or MAG.

Since Google Health shut down, companies have sought to offer tools to help families organize health records. Although Microsoft Health Vault has sought to fill the void, another company, MotherKnows, offers a system for parents to keep track of the children’s medical information such as vaccinations and medical history for emergencies and those who might need it like schools, babysitters and summer camps.

Image from Heal or Hell.