Beta.MN Startup Showcase: Dose Health

This is next in a series of articles highlighting the Startup companies that participated in the recent Beta.MN 2.5 event, held Sept 8, 2015 in Minneapolis, MN.

As we age, how do we keep track of things?  Or, for those of you who are (much) younger than me, how might we help our aging parents as they’re trying to accurately keep track of the very important task of taking their medications?

Dose Health has a “smart pill dispenser” that hopes to help with that aspect of a person’s life.

"DOSE Health has created a smart pillbox that allows caregivers to effortlessly monitor medication adherence through automatic notifications and an intuitive online platform."

Recently I had a great conversation with Paul Hines, MD, MHI.  Dr. Hines answered a few questions about his new product and about the hopes for this device.  Below are his annotated answers to my questions…

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The device looks like a great idea!  Where are you at in terms of the stage of development?

It’s still very early.  Dr. Hines only started working full-time on his product.  Like many startups, they are part-time endeavors until a certain point is reached.  They’ve been more serious about it for the past year.

How long have you been working on this?

About 5-6 months in total.  Currently it’s just Dr. Hines full-time.

What's the technology used to build the product?

They have just begun moving the software stack to an ASP .NET framework.  Their lead database architect previously worked at Microsoft.

What platform(s) is it for?

Planning on supporting all major platforms. UI is planned and built.  (You can actually experience the user interface HERE)

What are you guys using under the hood of this thing?

The IoT in the device is a Particle.io board, which has WiFi support.

What are you using for your cloud platform?

Currently AWS, but they're going to investigate Azure as a benefit of their acceptance into the Microsoft BizSpark program.

What are you doing for funding?  Do you have any outside investors?

“We are finishing up our seed round and plan on moving to Series A as soon as possible.”

Now the big question: Are you ready to start taking orders yet?

“We plan on lining up pre-orders very soon!”