Humetrix’s ICEBlueButton Wins The Public Vote For Best App And Second Place Award Overall In The Blue Button Co-Design Challenge

Press Release | Humetrix | September 17, 2013

Award Recognizes ICEBlueButton, A Blue Button Powered In Case of Emergency Information App For Mobile Phones or Tablets

Washington, DC, September 17, 2013 - Humetrix, a provider of consumer-centric mobile healthcare applications, and the developer of the multi-award-winning iBlueButton app, today announced that its ICEBlueButton (In Case of Emergency) app has been recognized as the second place winner in the Blue Button Co-Design Challenge. ICEBlueButton is a mobile phone and tablet app that allows immediate access to critical personal health information via a QR code to EMS personnel or bystanders attending to an emergency.

"We are delighted to have been chosen for an award from the ONC for the third year in a row," said Dr. Bettina Experton, Humetrix’s CEO. "ICEBlueButton delivers critical health information in emergency situations and it was very rewarding to hear about its lifesaving value directly from comments submitted during the competition by emergency medicine physicians and by the public whose votes elected ICEBlueButton as the best app in the Challenge.

"With ICEBlueButton’s novel use of QR codes, an ICE record can be immediately accessed by anyone attending to an emergency, and a complete health record which authorized EMS personnel can retrieve using the EMS module of iBlueButton Professional app," continued Experton.

ICEBlueButton is a Blue Button Plus enabled application which provides automated entry of complex medical data from existing online Blue Button records and allows the consumer to easily enter their own personal information to generate a “snapshot” of their personal health records – all retrieved via a QR code scanner scanning the individual QR code generated by the app. With the use of any QR code scanning app, a bystander attending to an emergency can scan the app user’s personal QR code to access the individual ICE record. Emergency medical personnel, with authorized use of the ICE feature of the IBlueButton Pro app, can retrieve a full record. To make the ICE record available at all times, the individual QR code generated by the app can be stored on the lock screen of the app user’s mobile phone, or printed for posting on a child’s bicycle helmet or on the refrigerator door of a homebound elderly person.

The ICEBlueButton app won the public vote phase of the Blue Button Co-Design Challenge and took second place overall in the competition. The patient-facing applications were judged by a panel of distinguished experts on a range of criteria, including:

  • Innovative use and integration of Blue Button Plus
  • Innovative use of Blue Button patient data
  • Application design and ease-of-use
  • Relevance to crowd-sourced ideas and participation in co-design

The ICEBlueButton app for iOS and Android devices will be publicly released in October during the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians in Seattle.

As part of the Department of Health and Human Services digital services strategy, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched the Industry Innovation Blue Button Challenge in 2012, intended to increase the number of patient-facing applications able to receive and make practical use of clinical data via Blue Button. Humetrix won last year’s Blue Button Mash-Up Challenge with its iBlueButton application.

About Humetrix
Humetrix has pioneered the development of innovative consumer-centered IT solutions over the past 15 years, which have been deployed around the world. The company’s iBlueButton and ICEBlueButton app are the mobile embodiment of the Federal Blue Button initiative launched in 2010 by the Veterans Administration, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the U.S. Department of Defense, now embraced by over 500 organizations and available to more than 100 million Americans. For more information, visit www.humetrix.com, www.ibluebutton.com, www.icebluebutton.com and view video at: http://youtu.be/lqt2PMHMqhQ

Connect with Humetrix:
Twitter: @Humetrix, #Humetrix, #iBlueButton
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/humetrix

Press contact:
Liora Bram, Media Strategies
617-202-9854
[email protected]

Press contact:
Cheryl Delgreco, Media Strategies
617-723-4004
[email protected]