Enables chronic patients in distress and their caregivers to alert and conference-in the people they trust, by simply shaking their phone
TEL-AVIV, Israel – July 15, 2015 – HelpAround, Inc., the creator of the popular Diabetes Helpers peer-to-peer support network, today announced the launch of Alert: the first health app to act in real-time on incoming Apple HealthKit data. When used on an Apple iOS device and granted access to HealthKit’s blood glucose data, Alert immediately notifies the user to send an alert when an incoming glucose reading is outside of a predefined range.
Additionally, Alert lets users with any chronic condition caught in physical or emotional distress to manually alert and conference-in their most trusted contacts, so as to troubleshoot the situation together.
“With Diabetes Helpers, we saw thousands of strangers stepping up to help each other, but we also learned how much fear our users cope with,” said Yishai Knobel, HelpAround founder and CEO. “We recognized that in times of trouble it is imperative for anyone to be able to easily reach the most trusted people in their lives.”
The new Alert app builds on the success of the company’s Diabetes Helpers app, a ground-breaking service that made famous the question: Would you help a neighbor with diabetes? The service allows anyone to locate diabetes helpers in their immediate area. Caught out and about with only one test strip? Diabetes Helpers lets you see who’s in your area that might carry the same make and model you do.
The developers of Alert considered a wide range of chronic conditions and allergies for the service. Having run mHealth for diabetes technology company AgaMatrix, Knobel knew that as blood sugar drops, fine motor skills deteriorate and thinking can become muddled, making it difficult to properly navigate a smartphone. This is why all one needs is a simple shake of the phone to initiate an alert.
After the Alertapp is launched, the user can create an alert either by shaking the phone or tapping a single large red alert button. The user then has a 5-second buffer after which it sends a text message with the user’s exact location to the three trusted helpers and initiates a conference call with all of them. Alert piggybacks both text and the conference call onto the user’s data plan, so the app does not cut into voice minutes. Examples of trusted helpers include family, friends, or professionals such as school nurses or care coordinators.
Alert is available for download on iOS and Android mobile phones and does not require a change in phone carrier or phone number to use. The users’ alert contacts don’t need to use a smartphone to receive alerts. The basic app is available for free at the Apple App Store and on Google Play, and includes the text message service and three conference calls. An upgraded subscription is available for $9.95 a month and includes unlimited calls. The company expects to release an Apple Watch version of the app later this year.
Download the press kit here.
About HelpAround
HelpAround, a Contextual Patient Support company, was founded by Health-Tech and Ad-Tech veterans with the mission of improving the lives of chronic patients by matching each individual with the right resource for their condition at the right time. Their first product, Diabetes Helpers, uses patient data and passive contextual data to pair people with diabetes with helpers in their immediate area. Their new product, Alert, expands on this functionality and makes it easy for users to quickly alert and conference-in their most trusted contacts before reaching out to the nearby community. For more information please visit http://helparound.co/.
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Media Contacts
Shoshana Nacass
Community Success Manager, HelpAround
+1.917.809.4425
Surabhi Srivastava
TriplePoint, for HelpAround
+1.415.955.8500
Alyx Evans 
Kaitlyn Red Wing