The online medical records space is growing fast; with Microsoft, Google and others trying their hand at products that could eventually become the go-to platform for accessing health records online. TechCrunch50 startup Glide Health, which was spun off from Transmedia, is hoping to give these tech giants a run for their money with its web, desktop and mobile apps that provide a centralized repository for patient records. Glide Health’s web and desktop apps hold patient profiles (which can be created by the patient or doctor) that contain pertinent medical information such as insurance information, family medical history, doctors, past test results, past surgeries and procedures, x-rays and more.
This browser app is based on the same synchronization engine that powers Glide’s previously launched collaboration OS software; however, this product has been specifically designed for the healthcare space. Today, Glide Health is launching an application for patients, doctors and healthcare professionals to access and manage healthcare from their desktops or mobile phones. All the data syncs no matter where it is updated across legacy patient management systems and databases.
Via the mobile and desktop apps, doctors can manage patient records and health history as well as save any communication about patients between other doctors and professionals. Doctors can also schedule appointments from mobile phones, prescribe medications and write prescriptions directly to pharmacies from the mobile app. Doctors can submit dictations to the Glide Health platform via the mobile app, which will then be transcribed.
On the patient side, the mobile app lets users travel with their complete medical history and records wherever they go. The patients can also document and archive any communications with doctors and healthcare professionals as well as access WebMD-like information about personal health and fitness, health news, support groups, insurance policies and health facilities. The platform lets doctors and patients upload health records, transcripts, x-rays and other medical information and images.
Glide Health makes money by charging medical professional an annual fee; but the app will be available to patients for free (if their doctor uses the program). Synchronizing medical data across legacy systems is a huge challenge, especially when security is an issue but Glide Health’s Founder and CEO Donald Leka assures that the app is extremely secure and built with several security and privacy layers.
Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased)
The experts: Satish Dharmaraj, Don Dodge, Bradley Horowitz, Tim O’Reilly, Kevin Rose
LZ: barriers, regulatory privacy issues comment?
AA: privacy is important, we lost sight of that-we see tremendous benefits from products we see in the market today. We provide a rights spaced environment for sharing.
LZ: going to charge providers-how to make the case to switch from previous management systems.
A: Have doctors who are investing into these platform, The selling point is the abandonment of traditional models, with a revenue share of ad revenue with doctors.
TO: I like the vision of what you like to do except for the advertising.
I have a hard time believing you have solved these problems.
A: We’ve built the platform-the selling point is universal compatibility. Signed agreements, but launched today.
KR: Doctors have to be on the platform for thus to work?
A: We are starting with doctors groups to get leverage on the platforms.
Video:
Other Coverage:
Techcrunch 50: Glide Health Geekfluence.
Nice. Welcome GlideHealth. MedGoline will be luanching on Thursday as well. Donald Leka, great move. MedGoline also has a very interesting spin towards this segment. Great segment would love some good quality competition or “coopetition”.
info@medgoline.com
MedGoline Team
Please include the video. This sounds interesting.
So, they’re going to charge the doctors, but then give them a share of the ad revenue?!? Crazy.
Creating a revenue opportunity for your customers sounds like a great selling point. The fact that Glide Health has customers with significant distribution out of the gate means it must be working.
It is clear that the hosted, unified, inter-linked approach to healthcare data is gaining traction. Traditionally, electronic health record vendors (targeted at physicians) had created proprietary, closed systems that resulted in practice-specific data silos; patient-oriented approaches (PHRs) had been a separate endeavor that tried to link to EHRs and other health data sources where possible. Now approaches like GlideHealth are trying to bridge that gap.
At Practice Fusion (http://www.practicefusion.com) we have seen the advantages of a hosted, SaaS-based EHR, and have been successful in rapid sign-ups and adoption from the physician side of the spectrum. We are building a linked Patient Portal (our PHR) in collaboration with Salesforce.com, with chart-sharing between physicians, and automatically populating the patient’s experience with what is in his/her physicians’ records (all physicians) – we share GlideHealth’s enthusiasm about the potential that this kind of technology can offer to improving health care for everyone.
Given that we began with an EHR, we have already built the needed data safety, security and privacy layers needed to be compliant with HIPAA (and the current HITECH extensions of the HIPAA Privacy Rules). Extending this level of security and privacy into the patient-portal space is built into our basic architecture. We expect to launch the EHR/PHR linkage within the next 2 months.
NO FOCUS
prescriptions,
patient records,
medical records,
dictations,
scheduling…
Oh yeah, and we’ll have virtual drug reps too!
yada, yada…
everyone thinks they “know” the health care space.. yeah just like revolutionhealth
Note to investors… kiss this money goodbye…
Isn’t the whole point to make all of this information accessible in one place? That is focus. What we have right now is anarchy… These guys are focused on system integration which is desperately needed in the healthcare industry. Having spent my professional life in the healthcare industry, there is a huge opportunity for this kind of service. Kudos to the Glide Health team.
Very Interesting. An idea whose time has come but maybe very hard to execute.
Please put up the video.
This is really exciting and it really makes sense. I am sure that the scenario that was portrayed in the demonstration (a medical emergency occurring while traveling) happens frequently and accessing patient records for the treating physicians is challenging. I was very intrigued by the interactive patient dictation as part of the treatment. It seems like this would be useful for many diseases that require ongoing monitoring. I also like the idea of being able to access my own health records from my mobile phone. Good luck. The timing couldn’t be better.