SimoHealth Weblog

Electronic Medical Records: A Mother's Story

We read a powerful article today that drives home the importance of patient access to health records.

Peggy Charlene Frank, a mother of an infant facing numerous health issues, opens her article by saying, "I know from personal heartache that information is the root of everything in healthcare."

In this Healthcare IT News article, Peggy talks about the stress of being the primary manager of her daughter's medical information and how Electronic Medical Records (EMR) would help lessen the burden.

Another excerpt:

"I have had to be what Malcolm Gladwell, author of “The Tipping Point,” calls a “connector,” literally running interference between the various physicians and healthcare facilities to ensure that Ashley’s medical records physically get from place to place, physician to physician, and in a timely manner often under extreme emotional conditions."

We can relate.

More News

Check out Dave Worthington's review of SimoHealth on the BetaNews site.

The folks over at Mozilla  like the product too - saying in a blog post that it's "quite attractive." SimoHealth is built on Firefox and we're pleased they like what they see!

In the news...

Richard Koman from SiliconValleyWatcher had a few nice things to say about about our new product and we couldn't wait to share the good news! Here's a sampling...

"SimoHealth really is a breakthrough product in this space. It offers what I think is an unparalled ability to break down and track complex medical transactions that goes far beyond the checkbook approach of apps from major players. A medical transaction is a complex affair."

You can read the entire article at the SVW site.  Thanks Richard - we're pleased you're a fan.

Welcome to SimoHealth

When my son Simon was born, he experienced several undiagnosed medical problems. My wife Tracy and I spent hours dealing with endless forms and bills from doctors and our insurance company. 

While we were able to find a medical support group to help with diagnosis issues, we really didn't know where to turn for help with the nuts and bolts of navigating the healthcare system. Overwhelmed, we turned to the Berkeley Parents Network for advice. (Berkeley Parent's Network is a fabulous resource. Its website contains thousands of pages of recommendations and a parent-to-parent newsletter for the community of parents in the Berkeley, CA area. At the time there were over 4000 members--now they say over 11,000 members).

It turns out that others shared our frustration of keeping things  under control while managing incoming bills, out of pocket expenses, and  tracking doctor's visits, and the best advice we received was how somebody kept extensive manila folders in piles on the floor of their dining room. 

Out of that difficult time came the idea for SimoHealth (named after Simon of course). A survey I posted to the Parents Network about interest in a software program to manage medical histories and health expenses showed healthy interest, so I built a team by recruiting friend and consumer product development chief Marty Fisher, President of AOL Techonology, as a co-founder along with his son, Todd Fisher a recent MSCS grad from Lehigh University.

Additionally, marketing gurus Lisa Gansky, former CEO of Ofoto, joined as a board member--and John Monson, former VP Marketing of Intuit, and Healthcare industry expert Aaron Brown, former President of Innovus, a Blue Shield of CA subsidiary, joined us as advisors.

We have also tapped an extraordinary technical team to help us build the product on the most advanced development platform available today (more on that later). The result is a free preview version of SimoHealth, Consumer Edition, the software product which I'm very pleased to present to you today.

SimoHealth is a way to track health expenses and organize information about the medical history of all loved ones, including your pets. 

I use it and it's helped us tremendously. I even found money that providers owed me. Turns out I'd successfully appealed a  denied claim and the provider was paid twice. This was money that I didn't know I was owed and nobody was going to offer to me.  It was my use of SimoHealth (testing the beta version actually) that alerted me to the hundreds of dollars I overpaid and I was able to get reimbursed.

Also, when we take Simon to a new doctor all I have to do is print out his Personal Health History and all the info the doctor needs is right there - past and current medications, conditions, allergies, etc. The best part is, with all his information organized and accessible, we're in a better position to get the best possible care for Simon.

I invite you to try SimoHealth. Reduce some of that frustration we all feel when it comes to bills and forms.  Save yourself  money by making sure you get 100% of your insurance benefits. And enjoy a little peace of mind by helping your family get the best care.

In Good Health,

Todd Lash
Co-Founder & CEO

Visit www.simohealth.com