Brown Medical Student Innovates Medical Apps in RI Startup
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
The doctor is IN... the palm of your hand, with Cold Doctor, the latest app from Brown medical student Tim Jolis' biotech venture.
Ever wonder when you have a bad cold whether or not all that chicken soup you’ve been eating is really helping you recover? Or if you should stay in bed to rest or get outside for some exercise? Jolis’ new app, Cold Doctor, can tell you exactly what you want to know to get better in a matter of seconds.
The app, Jolis’ favorite, is like having your own personal doctor on speed dial. Using up-to-date scientific information, Cold Doctor can track your cold symptoms, treatment, and improvement, explain remedies in plain English, and offer advice on treatments. You might find it surprising what actually helps cure a cold, and what is myth.
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The Beginning
The idea to create apps began as a way to make medical information more accessible for patients, students, and doctors.
“As someone who grew up with the internet and smartphones, I was amazed by how much medical research data is locked away in journals that are difficult to access and hard to understand,” Jolis explains. “Patients and doctors should be able to get this info just as easily as they get their sports scores or celebrity gossip. So I got some friends together, and we started making apps.”
Other Apps from Jolis
Jolis Biotech, a team of Ivy League Medical Students from Brown Alpert Medical School and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), have also released two other medical apps.
Sensitivity & Specificity is able to streamline and help direct medical tests. As a medical student or professional, find what lab tests you should run at the click of a button. Sensitivity & Specificity will tell you what tests might be useful and provide current information on hundreds of conditions based off peer-reviewed papers, studies, and data with literature citations.
Keep your medical records on hand with Vitals & Fluids Medical Care Tracker. Input your name, age, height and your other medical information to track your eating, weight, urine, vital signs, and more for onhand use in home, hospital, emergency, or intensive health care situations.
It Hasn’t All Been Happy-Apping
Not everything down the road to success has been easy for Jolis or the team.
“Developing apps has certainly been challenging,” Jolis says. “My philosophy is that most things in life work better with the fewest moving parts. So with every app we have a clear vision and the same tight, hard working team. We've produced four apps so far under the Jolis Biotech label, and I feel like each one is better than the next.”
Rhode Island Based
Although people all over the world have accessed Jolis’ apps, RI remains central to their success.
“Rhode Island has been a fantastic place to create our fledgling start-up. We've benefited from the cutting edge research going on at my school, the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and we've been able to partner with an amazingly talented artist at RISD named Ivy Bradley, in addition to working with our brilliant friends at Brown's Department of Computer Science,” Jolis says. “If Providence didn't have such smart and energetic people, I don't think this kind of collaboration could have happened.”
Check Them Out
The apps are available for iPad, iPhone, and Android. Check out the apps and pick one up for 99 cents here. Click here for more information on Jolis Biotech’s apps.
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