DocTalk

CATEGORY: Health

DocTalk

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Doctors and patients suffer from poor communication in medicine. DocTalk is a website-and-app service that helps patients journal and remember critical medical data. Everyone will benefit from better health care.

Standings & Awards

6 out of 422 in North America
10 out of 284 in Health
19 out of 935 in Design
14 out of 555 in For-Profit
50 out of 4003 Overall

5

VOTES

Team DocTalk

DocTalk prevents disease by making information available, and empowers people to maintain their health.

Doctors and patients suffer from poor communication in medicine. Physicians often ask their patients to collect routine medical data, such as blood pressure and blood sugar, on their own at home. Unfortunately, the typical patient fails to collect the data, forgets to bring their records with them to the next appointment, or does not present the data in a useful form. As a result, doctors must decide between trusting the patient or trusting their own equipment in making a diagnosis, when making a diagnosis is even possible. Time, money, and trust are lost.

DocTalk is our solution to this problem. We will use information technology to allow patients to securely store collected data, and conveniently access it from anywhere. The patient will collect data and enter it into a smartphone application or website. The data will be stored on a secure DocTalk server, safeguarded against intrusion by military-certified encryption. At any time or place and from any device, the patient may open and examine their records, or allow a doctor to look at them. DocTalk will make accurate and organized medical records readily accessible.

DocTalk has enormous potential for growth. Everyone needs medical care at some point during his or her life. Given the rapid expansion of the Internet and cellular technologies that allow mobile Internet access, DocTalk could spread to every corner of the planet. Our long-term goal is to spread our service nationwide and across the rest of the world.

Support Your Idea Optional (5 - 7 minutes for three uploads)

Supporting Document:

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SurveyResults.docx

Roadmap to Success Optional (1 - 3 minutes to upload)

Roadmap to Success:

roadmap_to_success.doc

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

DocTalk is a system for helping medical patients journal, organize, and remember medical data. Patients will enter data into their smartphone app or website. The data is stored on a secure server, waiting for the patient to retrieve it and show it to a doctor. This simple method will empower patients to take an active role in their healthcare. Additionally, doctors will waste fewer appointment slots on unprepared patients. As a result, more disease will be treated, increasing overall health.

2. Who gains the most?

Medical patients gain the most from DocTalk. While doctors will be happy to treat patients more effectively, the main benefit is to individual health. If patients can easily collect data, more disease will be diagnosed while it is still treatable. Moreover, patients will be empowered to take an active role in their health. For example, records leading to an early cancer diagnosis might save a patient's life. An engaged, empowered patient is a healthy patient.

3. Who pays?

DocTalk will be funded primarily through advertisements. The app and website will not cost any money to use, though they will show unobtrusive advertisements to the user.

4. What is your success?

DocTalk’s success can be measured by looking at the number of users interacting with DocTalk on a regular basis. If DocTalk is not helpful, people will stop using it. The more active users we have, the more we know DocTalk is helping. In one year, we hope to have 1898 active users, 1% of the target market in Phoenix, Arizona. We aim for 177,941 active users, 1% of the target market in the US, in three years. In five years, we hope to have 355,882 active users, 2% of the target market in the US.

5. How will you do it?

DocTalk will improve health for every patient using it, so we can improve overall health by getting DocTalk to as many users as possible. Five members of DocTalk have experience in programming. We will learn the skills required to build DocTalk, and then code and maintain it. We will launch through our mentor Dr. Nilay Kavathia, who can introduce DocTalk to his colleagues. We will also advertise through social media, and offer doctors promotional flyers to give to their patients.