Recently, The Right Place had the opportunity to meet with one of Grand Rapids’ newest tech start ups, Ideomed. Ideomed is an innovative tech company that provides personalized managed health solutions. Both the company and individual technologies were created with the idea of combining web technology and mobile technology to personally manage chronic conditions.
Ideomed’s first product to hit the market is Abriiz. Abriiz, a comprehensive asthma management system, consists of both a web based application and mobile application, and focuses specifically on pediatric asthma.
The mobile app reminds patients to take their medication and measure their peak flow (both common processes that individuals with asthma experience on a daily basis). The app then captures the recorded information and sends it to the second part of the technology, the web based application. The mobile app tool is currently compatible with Apple products, but Ideomed does plan to make the app compatible with Android systems as soon as possible.
The buttons used to record medication intake on the mobile app.
The web based application is used to store all of the records transmitted from the mobile app. It’s primarily used by the parents of patients, but parents do have the ability to give permission to doctors, caregivers and other medical or insurance professionals who need to monitor the patient’s use of specific medications and other asthma related medications. Regularly produced reports show trends and provide insights into how the patient is controlling their asthma.
Color coded buttons used on the mobile app to record data
The latest edition to Abriiz has been the development of an interactive game that acts as an incentive for young, pediatric patients who properly record their medication intake. Each day that an individual records their medication, they advance in the game. Also involved in the game are “Abriizlings,” which are small avatar type figures that are able to grow as the individual nurtures them. In the sense of the game, nurturing an “Abriizling” is equivalent to properly and consistently recording medication intake.
Ideomed offers the chance to participate in a trial of Abriiz by filling out a web form found here. Ideomed is targeting self-insured employers and insurance companies to use Abriiz as a benefit in their health care plan.
Ideomed is another success story of the Grand Rapids SmartZone. Grand Rapids’ SmartZone was established in 2002, defining a geographic area in downtown Grand Rapids dedicated to the development of new high tech ventures, including biotech, information technology and advanced manufacturing. These areas create opportunities for open collaboration between private business, universities, and research institutes to spur new growth in West Michigan’s high-tech/bio-tech cluster. More information on Grand Rapids SmartZone can be found here.
More information on Ideomed and Abriiz can be found at www.abriiz.com and www.ideomed.com.
