In a rural town in Illinois, a computer coding aficionado and his family founded TeraTech Mobile, a technology company that develops mobile apps. The Browns, headed by self-taught coder Zach, recently uprooted their family from Illinois and returned to their roots here in Arizona because of the vast amount of technology resources, infrastructure, and all-around community that were available here and could support their business aspirations.
Zach, one of three sons, began computer coding at the age of nine when he was gifted his first computer and taught himself numerous computer languages. His passion for coding is prevalent in his early creation of the mobile gaming app, Chicken Plus, available on iTunes, which he designed one day while bored and wanted something fun to do. Zach shared that even as the creator of the app, he doesn’t hold the highest score in the game.
Zach expressed that since arriving in Arizona, “it’s been a nice change of pace” and that they haven’t come across anyone who wasn’t willing to help. Zach’s mother Shandy chimed in and said that the family recently took advantage of Mesa’s Red Mountain Public Library free tech services and the latest Apple iMac equipment (a scarce offering where they were from) where Zach successfully submitted his latest app hackMYhealth to the iTunes store.
Their latest development is hackMYhealth, a mobile app that transforms your smartphone into a comprehensive medical alerting platform for active individuals faced with medical conditions such as seizures, asthma, or migraines. The idea for this app stemmed from Zach’s own condition where he suffers from Basilar Migraines, which can resemble a seizure. While exercising one day he had collapsed, no one knew about it and his family was unable to locate him for over five hours.
When the hackMYhealth app is activated and the person is exercising, the user will need to interact with the app after a certain amount of time, identifying that they are ok. If the person fails to respond after the timeframe allotted, plus 60 seconds, the app will automatically alert an emergency contact via text message and a phone call with an automated message informing them of the inactive individual and identifying their location.
When a user downloads hackMYhealth the first step is to fill in general medical information such as condition, allergies and emergency contacts that will be displayed for a medical professional or good samaritan if found in need of help; an audio loop was also built in to ensure that anyone that comes in contact with a hackMYhealth user won’t misdiagnose or give improper medication.
Features of the app
- Core Medical Alerting
- Active Location Awareness
- Installation on up to 3 Devices
- Location Grabber
- Record Storage and Retrieval
- Begin Workout Alerts
- End Workout Alerts
- Workout History
- Workout Statistics
The closest app we found that resembles Zach’s app is MedLert which offers similar features but is not as immediate as hackMYhealth. Also, notifying an emergency contact at the beginning and conclusion of a workout is a feature that is not present in any other app on the market.
The app is currently in beta with new features added regularly until the full launch later in 2014. During the beta phase, users can send in feedback to help improve the app’s usability. You can download the app for free until beta testing is completed.
iOS download here
Android download here
For AZTB’s past coverage of all things fitness click here
Photos provided by hackMYhealth