Developers launch app to help patients manage health records

Two Overland Park developers launched a new app to help consumers keep track of all of their health records in one place. MyCuratio is free for download on Apple and Android devices, allowing users to enter and manage all of their health care records in one place for easy sharing.

“We had a lot of people tell us what we’re trying to attempt is pretty ambitious. It was really exciting to launch,” Curate Health co-founder Michael Hopkins said. “There are so many reasons why putting all your medical information in one place is so valuable.”

Users also can chart their health information alongside family members using the new app.

Hopkins and co-founder Dao Dang created the platform after they noticed a gap in “patient-up” communication with providers. Hopkins said they saw the new “personal health movement” as a good jumping off point for the app: As patients use phones to monitor their diet, steps and activity, why not use them to track health records, too?

“With the strain hospitals are under, and the data they have to track, it has prevented them from taking a step forward into the personal health movement,” Hopkins said. “It’s becoming more important for health care systems to get out there and engage. … How do you keep your population healthier so they’re not showing up at the hospital with these preventable diseases?”

MyCuratio is not the first app to offer personal health care record (PHR) management. Currently, patients may enter their health care information manually and share it with providers, schools and employers as a document. What sets MyCuratio apart is its potential: Because it is built on a coded database like other electronic health record systems, the individual data could be shared with hospitals and practices directly using the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards framework.

On the user end, MyCuratio features a "social network" aspect as well. Patients can sign up for communities centered on different care topics, including diabetes, heart disease and women’s health.

“It’s a little bit like Facebook for health care,” Hopkins said.

In these groups, users can engage in dialogues with other patients who have a similar condition or experience. They will give providers an opportunity to educate patients and engage with them across a broader platform, Hopkins said.

The communities also will help support the application in the long run. Providers will pay for the service to be able to start their communities, reaching a broader spectrum of patients. Although the app launched at the end of September, Hopkins said Curate Health would partner with a few unnamed area providers to pilot this aspect of the platform.

“We know we have revenue attached to those partnerships coming in,” he said. “In the long term, we think we have a very solid revenue model that’s going to work out.”

In the future, Hopkins said they would be interested in partnering with hospital groups, provider physician groups, rehabilitation groups and health advocacy groups.

“Really any group that has a patient population they’re serving, we’ve got a really great platform to communicate with patients,” he said.

The two developers are in discussions about their next funding round, though it has not yet been scheduled.

Elise reports on health care, life sciences and publicly traded technology companies.