News

Coming this Summer! The Beta Release of the One Heart App

– May 2020 –

One Heart Health Banner The first step to any type of healthcare, even complex care for congenital heart defects (CHD), is a diagnosis.

The first step to any type of smartphone application innovation is releasing an alpha app.

In 2017 the alpha version of the One Heart app was released and a major new tool for detecting CHDs in low-resource settings was introduced to the world and to the internet. Now, this summer, we can expect a greatly improved version of the app when the beta version is released. Some sneak previews of the screen shots for the beta version can be seen below.

The One Heart Health app is like many online applications one finds on their smartphone, with two special differences – the app is only available to participating hospitals and partners, and the information captured is shared directly with practicing telemedicine cardiologists.

Thanks to generous funding from the Pediatric Device Innovation Consortium and the Chao Foundation, One Heart Health was able to develop the alpha app and partner with hospitals in Gansu and Yunnan provinces in China to screen more than 25,000 kids in China for CHDs. A total of 51 kids were identified as having cardiac concerns requiring follow up, and five of those kids ultimately received life-saving surgeries.

While the alpha app has more than demonstrated proof of concept, One Heart Beta App Product and Project Manager Kathleen Jiang saw there was still room for improvement. She explains, “When the first app was produced it was robust enough that it was released to our pilot partners in the field. We were pleased with the functionality of the first alpha version of the device, but saw an opportunity to refine and polish the app for an improved user experience.”

Jiang, a former consultant at Deloitte and now an MBA student at University of California-Berkeley, is very familiar with the iterative nature of perfecting a technology. Jiang spent most of her time at Deloitte as a project manager for tech implementation and now serves as product manager for the beta release of the One Heart app, were she joins other highly skilled volunteers like Luke Goetzke, PhD, and Weiguang Shao, PhD, in improving the app for its beta release to partners. The team has been working on improving the app since March of 2019 and are looking forward to sharing the final improved product this summer. Read on to see the improved functions of the beta release and to gain a sneak peek of the new interface.

One Heart Health is pleased to announce that the updated beta app will be available this summer.

Some new features for the newly improved app include:

Improved security and privacy measures
Pooled telemedicine consultation requests to all available cardiologists
A more streamlined user experience that is uniquely curated for local front-line staff in rural areas in addition to a version for off-site urban cardiac experts

Donate to One Heart Health

Thanks to all of One Heart Health’s donors and volunteers for enabling the resources to improve the One Heart Health app to help more kids in China and beyond. One Heart Health is a 501(C)3 and completely dependent on donations to operate. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to support One Heart Health in reaching more children please click HERE.