By: Kirstan Vandersluis, Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Guest Blog
Denver startup founder designs an app that can help his aging parents
When my primary care doctor moved out of town, I went around collecting my records from all my providers to give my new doctor a comprehensive picture of my health history. It was rough: I had to pay for paper copies of my records that went on and on for hundreds of pages, I got my records burnt onto a disc…. And then it happened: one of my providers had lost my records completely—and some pretty important records at that. So what could I do about it? Nothing, because providers own the health records of the patients they serve, not the patients.
Each of us will be a patient at one point or another, and we’ll get better care if our clinicians have a complete record of our medical history. The dilemma is that sharing between health providers has proven problematic for a number of reasons, including lack of a computer network to replace the FAX machine, lack of trust between providers and labs, and unwillingness to share for fear of a HIPAA violation.
mChart automatically downloads records from the user’s health providers. Users can also add in their own data.
Fortunately, the US government is dramatically strengthening patients’ rights to obtain and manage their own records. Now, for the first time, it is viable for a patient to collect and manage their own records, and deliver a complete health picture that can be shared with a user’s clinicians.
Given my frustrations in gathering my own records, and the accelerating trend towards open access for patients, I set out to empower patients with a new personal health record application called, mCharts. This new application automatically downloads records from each user’s health providers and also lets them input their own information including data from fitness devices and photographs of conditions. This gives the user and their health care providers a holistic picture of the person’s health in a comprehensive format.
Healthcare Trend:
Empowering the patient with access to information
Another example of this trend is Routinify which has built a fully customizable app linked to easy-to-use wearables and hand-held Smart Displays to help aging adults develop healthy habits around their healthcare routines. This technology improves communication between patients, caregivers, and providers, ultimately leading to better outcomes.
Healthcare is moving in the of direction empowering patients—and those who care for them—with better technology and more access to information. We see this trend with the Apple Health suite; things like the Apple Watch and Health App are designed to make healthcare more personal.
If they were a disease, medical errors would now rank as the third leading cause of death in the US, a 2016 analysis published in the BMJ found, right behind heart disease and cancer.
Personal experience with older adults helped inform need for app
I also have older adult parents that are now at the stage where they need help coordinating their medical care, including regular visits to various doctors. They are far from alone; older Americans average 7 visits to clinicians across 4 different practices every year.
From its inception, I saw mCharts as a way to help my parents and their caregivers with tracking their medical records in a way that allows for them to bring their complete medical history - including the medications they are taking – with them to every appointment. Up until this point that was all but impossible. It’s even more significant when
you consider that if medical errors were a disease, they would now rank as the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
As the boomers head into their later years, more of them, along with their families and others that care for them, will find themselves in circumstances like my parents. The good news is there’s a clear trend towards health records being available so you can better understand your conditions and treatment plans. Now, apps like the one I have created – and others – will help older adults and the communities that support them take charge of their medical records and their wellbeing.
About the Author
Kirstan Vandersluis | Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Kirstan Vandersluis is a seasoned healthcare technologist with a passion for implementing solutions with positive social and economic impact. His software career has focused on information-rich solutions in Healthcare, Financial Services, and Defense, most recently working for institutions including Kaiser Permanente, University of Michigan Health Services, HealthRx, and Connetix Health. Kirstan is an Air Force veteran and long-time Colorado resident.
Learn More: www.mcharts.com
Facebook: mCharts
Email: shauna.armitage@mcharts.com
