The East Harlem Software Co. wants to bring the logistics of medicine to residents’ fingertips.
New doctors spend years in medical school training for the clinical demands of treating patients. But it’s the small stuff—routine tasks such as ordering a CT scan or referring a patient to a diabetes education course—that can trip up doctors-in-training.
A new mobile application, CareTeam, aims to lend a hand. Four students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai developed the app to store, in an easily accessible format, the type of information a resident might need. That includes phone numbers and protocols critical to making referrals, ordering tests and getting patients emergency care.
Founders Ted Pak, Ammar Siddiqui, Kevin Hu and Mark Finkelstein incorporated the East Harlem Software Co. in March. For the Mount Sinai Health System, they created eight versions for various inpatient, outpatient and medical education settings. They are in talks with Mount Sinai Beth Israel and Montefiore Medical Center to design versions for those institutions.
The company plans to charge monthly or annual fees as it rolls out to new customers. Mount Sinai has an undisclosed stake in the company.
Other applications, such as UpToDate, Medscape and AgileMD, offer resources to doctors on the latest evidence-based practices. CareTeam instead offers specific information tailored to each hospital unit or clinic.
“Most of the apps that are out there for clinicians are directed at clinical care,” Siddiqui said. “For logistics, there’s not a good app out there.”
Dr. Aparna Sarin, assistant medical director at Internal Medicine Associates, knows firsthand just how much logistical information residents need to have. When she started at the practice, she created a pen-and-paper version of all the protocols needed at the clinic. The board was posted on the wall and emailed to residents, but every time a phone number changed, or grant funding expired for a program, she needed to reprint and send out a new guide.
Instead of consulting the paper guide or searching through past emails, the information is now available in the app, which works on mobile phones and desktops.
“If you’re saving several seconds for every referral and every order over the course of the day, this will be a huge time-saver,” Sarin said. “Anecdotally, everybody seems to think it is immensely helpful.”
Dr. Charles Snyder, a third-year medical resident, said he uses it most frequently to access phone numbers, which are hyperlinked, allowing users to make calls with a single click. When he hears back from a lab with an abnormal result for a patient, he can find the right numbers to call the emergency room and Mount Sinai’s ambulance provider, TransCare. All the codes required by TransCare for authorization are provided in the app.
“As residents, we’re not experienced in every single thing we’re doing. There’s always going to be a first time, so this lays out the basic steps to get things done,” Snyder said.
Meet the East Harlem Software Co. Team
Theodore Pak
CEO, Co-Founder
Former full stack engineer at two NYC tech startups. Graduated from Harvard College in 2011 with an AB in Biochemical Sciences. Currently a 4th year MD/PhD Student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Ammar Siddiqui
COO, Co-Founder
Implementation guru, checklist champion, future anesthesiologist. Graduated from Dartmouth College in 2011 with a BA in Biomedical Engineering. Currently a 5th year MD/MSCR student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Mark Finkelstein
CTO, Co-Founder
Dreams in code and can debug a server with his teeth. Graduated from the University of Maryland in 2012 with a BS in Computer Engineering, Biology, and a BA in Economics. Currently a 3rd year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
KevinHuKevin Hu
President and CFO
The customer service and integration specialist. Graduated from Oberlin College in 2011 with a BA in Biochemistry. Currently a 4th year MD/MPH student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Read the original post by Jonathan LaMantia here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20151104/HEALTH_CARE/151109960/medical-students-launch-an-app-to-help-train-new-doctors
Learn more about East Harlem Software Co. : https://eastharlemsoftware.com/