As the medical community steadily turns towards technology to power online health records, the giants like Microsoft, Google and others are throwing their hats into the digital health records ring. It’s a growing space and there are many innovations taking place from both large tech companies and smaller startups. One compelling offering comes from Glide Health, a 2009 TechCrunch50 startup (read our initial review and watch their demo here), that recently launched desktop and mobile apps which 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. It pulls in data from disparate IT Health systems, converts it into a single format, and then synchronizes updates back to the original legacy systems.
Fresh on the heels of its launch, Glide Health already has its first major customer. Today, Glide has announced a fairly significant partnership with Integrated Medical Professionals (IMP), the largest multispecialty group practice in the United States, to implement Glide Health’s mobile and desktop platforms for the practice’s 100 physicians and over one million patients.
Via Glide Health’s 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 can be accessed on most smartphones including Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm Pre, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices, via the browser.
For instance, IMP currently uses Allscripts to power its electronic medical records. Glide Health will talk to AllScripts and import these records into its platform to make its service as familiar as possible for IMP doctors. And while IMP will be paying a per-doctor fee to use Glide Health’s platform, the desktop and mobile apps will be available to patients for free. Glide Health will also advertise on the mobile and desktop platforms and will share this revenue with IMP.