Anyone that has had to navigate the healthcare system for anything beyond a routine doctor’s visit knows the legwork involved; anyone that has had to juggle multiple health provider services, prescriptions, therapies, tests, supplements and nutritional regimens knows it can be crushing during already trying times. The hard realization here is that no one will do this for you. You need to be your own advocate for yourself or loved one.
Florence and Kwame Iwegbue were inspired to create a web-based solution out of their own experience of managing these complexities after their son was diagnosed with autism. Kwame saw the struggles his wife was having moving folders of paper-based records to the different types of healthcare, school and service provider appointments, as well as manually recording changes in diet and the consequences on behavior. The Iwegbue’s describe their experience as “back-breaking.” And this is from an insider: Kwame Iwegbue is not only a parent, but also a physician at Roper Hospital in Charleston, SC.
Called iBiomed, the Iwegbues’ mission is to position this software as the bridge between individuals, the information, and the health professionals they need in order to take control of their health and wellness. The couple is committed to contributing substantially to the movement toward a high-quality, personalized healthcare.
The software is a part personal organizer, part social network for the management of health, even beyond that of autism. It can be used by any person or caregiver who is managing a condition to record and report, creating a reliable medical history.
iBiomed FEATURES
- Keep detailed records on the go and online with a logbook for prescriptions, supplements, therapies, diets, allergies, and tests (also known as Treatment items). Meal/Diet Planner: Now a person’s nutritionist, health aid, doctor, occupational therapist, speech therapist, physical therapist or health provider can provide interactive input on a calendar style meal planner. There is also a separate calendar for adding appointments/creating schedules.
- Multiple Time Stamped Notes: Add notes to each of the above treatment items, e.g therapist/doctor’s instructions after an appointment. Your notes are easily search-able and printable. Use to create daily editable schedules too. It can also be viewed/shared by other caregivers in order to keep everyone on the same page.
- Manage Multiple People: Manage the treatment of as many people as you’d like, just as with a portable electronic medical record. This is helpful for facilities/providers with multiple patients. Add as many medications, tests, diets, therapies and health providers/aids as you’d like.
- Treatment Journal: Keep a journal or daily diary for each person whose treatment you’ll be managing with iBiomed. The journal entries are time stamped and easily searchable, e.g. foods, behavior logs or side effects and reactions. The journals are printable and can also be used to record therapy notes.
- Treatment History: Review your treatment history of tests, supplements, diets, therapy notes, behaviors and journals. You can also edit past log entries, including test results. If the test results are numerical, you can easily differentiate between normal and abnormal values.
- Treatment Reminder: Treatment alerts to help you remember to administer supplements, medications, tests and even therapy sessions and medical appointments. Online, these reminders can be scheduled to be sent to a third party with personalized messages.
- Share Treatment Information: Share access to your treatment plan with health professionals, facilities, therapists or nutritionists. Now a user can give limited or unlimited access permission to these caregivers so that everyone is on the same page. Any changes made to the record become instantly available to all.
- Supply Tracker for Prescriptions, Supplements & Medical Supplies: Tracks your supplies and lets you know when you should reorder a prescription or supplement based on a preset reminder. It also has a count-down feature that automatically recalculates how much is left.
- Interactive Health Network & Forum- “Share Everywhere” Feature: Now users and caregivers can interact with each other by posting ONE message/question and send it to all or some of your Facebook friends, groups, pages and email contacts–in one click. iBiomed’s Newsfeed: This is a research and learn section as it is filtered to show only up-to-the-minute news on the person’s health issues; this keeps the user/caregiver and their contacts engaged and informed about the issue. The hope is to unite experts around the world to help share information and research in real-time around the world.
- Customizable Graph: To track just about anything a person wants to watch closely; from symptoms to behaviors, appetite, continence, sleep, or anything you want to track. Once created, this investigational tool is essential to giving pertinent information about any issues in question.
The iBiomed Software is available for use online at http://ibiomed.me and as an iPad/iPod and iPhone App: Both are sync-able.
iBiomed for iPhone
iBiomed for iPad
We’ve highlighted the features of the technology – if you’d like to read more about the Iwegbue’s extraordinary contribution to consumer mobile health, the family’s story has been featured in the following media outlets: Post and Courier newspaper, Wall Street Journal, iPhone Life Magazine and About.com
