HealthDiary: Smart diary that collects your child’s health notes

HealthDiary is a digital diary that collects all your child`s health information in one place. This user-friendly solution enables to collect the data within a few minutes.

Kristi Hakkaja, the founder of HealthDiary explains that the aim is to improve the quality of input people use while making their health decisions – they should rely on quality data rather than their random memories. HealthDiary is focused on the automatisation of the process of collecting health data. “Gadget-based data collection like pulse and activity measurement is very popular today. This data, however, shows but a tiny fraction of your health. Most health data are in people’s heads, and you must write it down (it is called self-reported health data). Convenient enough solutions for collecting this data have yet to emerge.”

Test user insights have shown that any system must be simple and fast. “Collecting data to Fitbit is popular because it is convenient and the users do next to nothing. People find it difficult to be consistent – time-consuming applications lose their users. The key is simplicity. Furthermore, not everyone is a medical specialist, thus, user does not know what to record and which parameters should be monitored. We developed a solution that makes the collection of health data so convenient it feels as though it is happening automatically. It takes two minutes to fill in the daily quiz HealthDiary sends to its users. From these daily quizzes we acquire the basic information for creating the big picture of the user`s health,” explains Hakkaja.

Convenience is the key

“Ideally people want someone else to record their health notes. This ideal is what we aim for,” said Hakkaja. The daily quizzes sent to users generally consist of multiple-choice questions, so it takes very little time to respond. Users can always add their own notes.

“If the user only answers questions, the process takes one minute a day,” said Hakkaja. HealthDiary generates the next questions on the basis of previous answers. In case of a cold, for example, the system knows what to ask on the first, the second or the fifth day of the cold. “We do not diagnose diseases but, if necessary, provide guiding questions for the user to consult with the doctor. After doctor`s consultation, we record the prescribed medicines and doctor`s recommendations, help to follow the treatment regimen and track changes in their health condition,” notes Hakkaja.

Users can make extracts of the data by selecting required time periods or specific issues. “This feature enables to provide a great overview of a concrete health issue and its occurrence in a certain time frame. In addition, we can track you child`s development milestones, weight and growth schedules and vaccinations,” Hakkaja explains.

Despite all the technology in health sector, most diagnoses are still based on patient interviews. The way people provide their input to the doctors has never changed – we rely on our random memories, resulting in rather vague descriptions. “People increasingly realize they want better input for their health decisions, they want to be more involved, to be equal partners to their doctors,” Hakkaja explained.

The first goal of HealthDiary`s team is to make the platform easily usable for ordinary people. In the future, there will be an additional layer for the doctor. “Looking at the huge volume of device-driven data being assembled, doctors feel understandably overwhelmed. Raw data must first be transformed into information. Doctors generally do not need minute details, they want a concise overview of key symptoms,” explained Hakkaja.

Target market: small children

“Instead of focusing on a disease, we decided to focus on a target group – after all, health affects your entire body. Concentrating on a certain target group, small children in our case, we can narrow down the range of questions. Children`s health monitoring involves many standard issues such as the development of a child, common childhood diseases, and many others. For instance, if the child has a virus, we record the frequency or intensity of the virus, make notes about complications or different medications. Parents with small children are used to collecting data, thus, they should be the most receptive to our product,” says Hakkaja.

While working on the product, HealthDiary`s team has discovered that the solution is the most suitable for those parents who have a reason to be more involved: “If the child has a minor health issue such as an allergy, for example, the parents are required to observe their children`s health more carefully – if doctor`s instructions are followed, there is no need to see the doctor. If not, the allergy gets worse and medical attention is needed, the doctor will require a thorough overview from parents.”

Families moving between different countries also benefit from HealthDiary. “While living in one country, the family doctor has a good overview of your family`s health records. When moving between different countries, it is one`s own responsibility to have the health records with you – health data does not cross borders by itself,” explains Hakkaja.

HealthDiary receives all the information directly from its users. In the future, HealthDiary hopes to combine user`s personal notes with the data from patient`s electronical health records.

Health data for research

“People usually collect health data with the intention to improve their health condition, yet there is mounting evidence that people are willing to share this data in order to improve the quality of healthcare. In the future, we would like to cooperate with different healthcare institutions: high-quality data is valuable source of information for them. By selling our anonymous health data, we might be able to offer very cheap or even free of charge service,” explains Hakkaja.

Hakkaja adds that there is no need to fear the potential data sale: “Nowadays there are strict guidelines established for the protection and management of personal data. Health data is turned into anonymous research data and it is impossible to identify the person behind the data.”

At the moment, HealthDiary is collecting user feedback in private beta. “We are incorporating feedback and scaling the product for public use, expecting to go public this year. Even more, we have expansion plans for Europe and America,” says Hakkaja.