Take Control of our Personal Health
Gary Barg: Marc, OtisHealth, love the name. What is it and why did you start it?
Marc Mar-Yohana: OtisHealth is an application focused on giving people an opportunity to bring all of their health information in one place, be able to update themselves and then share it with other people. Even if you have a regular medical group you go to, and all your data is there, oftentimes you get referred out to a specialist, imaging center or lab. And all that data is in different places, so it's hard to get a full picture of everything that's going on unless you bring it to one place. And it's especially hard if you're caring for somebody else. With OtisHealth the idea is, let's get all of the information and the data from different locations and bring it to one place so you can see it and make it really easy to access. OtisHealth is both a web and a mobile app with the same functionality whether you're on a website or your phone.
Let's say, you’re at a hospital with a loved one. The doctor is asking you, about their allergies, medications or the last time they saw a physician, and you're filling out a medical history form with very little reference. OtisHealth, gives us the ability to add our own or our loved ones health record to those provided by physicians. You can add your or your loved one’s weight, blood pressure readings, blood glucose readings and observations.
Within OtisHealth, we have a depression severity assessment. So, members can, every couple of weeks, assess themselves, see how they're feeling mentally, and then track that over time. We also provide some guidance and insights associated with that scoring so you can talk to a mental health professional about it later.
Gary Barg: This puts a management dashboard right in the caregiver’s phones, so they can access the records, and interact with medical professionals on the spot.
Marc Mar-Yohana: Exactly, it smooths out the coordination of care. If you're going from one physician to another, and the new physician is saying that they have to order records from the other practice and they're going to need some time to read it. Imagine what it's like to be in front of the new physician and say, "No, you don't have to do any of that. Let me just send it to you right now. I have it on my phone!" You can also just send them what they need because with OtisHealth, you can decide what you want to share even with a medical professional. You can create a call profile to manage their health information and have it accessible to share with other members of the family care team. So, if a sibling wants to have access to dad or mom's records, you can provide them access.
Gary Barg: Presently, how difficult is it for us to access these records for ourselves and our loved ones?
Marc Mar-Yohana: If your medical system has a patient portal, you can login and see their medical information. Keep in mind that that's only one healthcare system. With the next system, you don't have access to the information from the first one. And they're more than likely on entirely different healthcare systems, so you can't access data, to where it's hard to get a complete picture. So, if a physician says, "Hey, is it normal for this person to have high blood pressure?" You may have to take notes and see what happens over time. There's no place to do that in the medical system today; meaning that you and not a medical provider must start logging in blood pressure and glucose information. With OtisHealth, you can easily log all of that information and within the next few months we'll be able to take that data directly from wearable devices right into OtisHealth.
Gary Barg: What are your long-term plans for OtisHealth?
Marc Mar-Yohana: Eventually, we want to be able to make it so that it gives a lot more beneficial insights to the caregiver and to the people that are using it to manage their own health. Then there's a section of the application called Health Insights. Our goal is to create deeper insights into that individual's health. Then we can look at their health records that they've entered from different providers, and say, "Okay, well, based on the information, it looks like you may be trending towards a specific illness." We can then actually suggest that individual see a physician about that particular illness.
Gary Barg: It seems like OtisHealth is as important to the physicians as it is to the caregivers and the people for whom we care.
Marc Mar-Yohana: Absolutely. Our primary focus is empowering people that use the application with better information and in a more complete view of their health. It really starts with us collecting that information. Over time, that will provide us with a baseline, and good information that will help us long-term with how we manage our health and the health of the people for whom we care.
Gary Barg: How did the name OtisHealth come about?
Marc Mar-Yohana: Otis, an amazing animal, was Constance, my daughter’s autism service dog. Otis was always by her side protecting her. Because I thought of the application as being something that's with somebody, and watching what they're doing and helping them out when there is a problem, it only made sense to name it after Otis.
Gary Barg: That is the loveliest explanation of how a company name came about, I think I've ever heard. Otis sounds like he was just an amazing care partner to your daughter. Marc, what would be the one most important piece of advice you'd like to share with family caregivers?
Marc Mar-Yohana: Number one, start collecting the health records now. Number two, make sure you have access to those records. You may need to get permission from the individual you're caring for to access their health records. The hospital systems may require you to fill out a form to get this access. Whenever you're presenting yourself at that hospital system, make sure you have what's called a power of attorney, or a medical power of attorney, so you have continuous and unfettered access to that individual's health information. You can start to collect it all and bring it into OtisHealth.
Gary Barg: Marc, how do we get OtisHealth?
Marc Mar-Yohana: A great question, thank you. There are two ways to get it. One, you can go to any of the app stores including Apple App Store, and Google Play Store. The application is free and you can share it with other people, as well. You could also go to our website OtisHealth.net and use the web version. Whatever you put in the web version also goes to the mobile version. You can also establish medication and other healthcare reminders on the phone. Then you will get notifications that pop up on your screen, and tell you it's time to take your medication.