#1 How did you first come up with the concept for Trackable Health?
We started with this smart medication dispenser and we wanted to be more connected to the human being that we were trying to serve. So we looked at wearable fitness devices and found that we could get a lot of information on their stress levels, sleep patterns, all kinds of different things. And with that we could really give them bespoke care and provide them with the oversight to manage those medications. What we’re really driving for is to be better advocates for ourselves and for each other.
And then we looked at caregivers and how they can benefit from understanding environments. For example, how long they’ve spent together, what causes them stress, what causes the patient stress, all those kinds of third party things that are very hard to get out of current environments.
#2 What was the impact of being awarded the Small Business Innovation Resource Contract from the government on your overall goals?
We have been very fortunate with the SBIR program. We have won two Phase I awards: the first one was around improving medication adherence by leveraging the smart medication dispenser and the wearable devices. The second one was around building trust in AI applications because obviously, while it’s a very dynamic realm, it’s new to a lot of people.
And when you start talking about machine learning and those kinds of things coupled with health care and people’s wellness, there’s a lot of sensitivities. We were able to land what’s called a Direct to Phase II contract with the Air Force Base at Eielson up at North Pole, Alaska, around being able to build this platform of care and being able to bring in information from various devices and create a level playing field. This was so that management and leadership can have a better understanding of when a person is ready to be deployed from a physical aspect.
#3 When you began to engage with an AWS Partner, what were you looking to achieve?
Being fortunate with the government means that we are compliant with government regulations. And we have relied on a lot of ‘technology sherpas’ to be able to guide us over these mountain passes that we have no idea how to navigate. So SourceFuse and AWS Health and others have really helped us come into this place where we can do everything by the rules and we want to exceed expectations. Data vulnerability and all the kinds of things that are so prevalent now, have to go away.
I want my mom’s data on our platform and if it ever gets compromised, I’m gonna hear a lot so I am looking to avoid that! and working with companies like SourceFuse helps me get ahead of the problem.
#4 From a technical perspective, what has SourceFuse enabled you with?
Yes, it was very tactical because there are levels of compliance that we needed to achieve with what’s called our ‘gov cloud instance’. SourceFuse was able to do the engineering behind standing that up and attaining the level 4 and level 5 certifications that we need to be able to leverage what’s called an Authorization to Operate (ATO).
Having the ATO means that when working with base communications you are able to bring in data, share data, and do all those kinds of things. Otherwise you have to do that outside of the base and it’s just a level of sensitivity that we wanted to make sure that we had addressed and resolved to the best of our ability.
Compliance is really important for sensitive data, so we have to make our personnel safe first. There was a situation where one of the apps betrayed them because it showed their cycling routes and the enemy was able to attack them – that can never happen again. And so GPS tracking was a lesson learned. So there’s all kinds of different things. The government actually put a human subject resource, which is what they call studies where you’re working directly with participants, and paused to make sure that they understood where all the points of vulnerability were. We were one of the last to be granted an HSR-IRB (Human Subject Research, International Review Board) that would allow us to work with personnel directly, put devices on them, and collect data anonymously to build their trust.
But now we can push forward, with me being the Principal Investigator, understanding the process much better and all the kinds of things it took. Also, having that align with what SourceFuse has done, as far as compliance goes all the pieces have to be in place for us to move forward. Being from the outside and coming in gives me a lot of opportunity to be naive to things that maybe I should know. But it has also opened doors because of the level of communication that I have been engaged with and asking all the questions they’ve been very patient about. Every once in a while, we get to a point where the answer “I don’t know” comes back, and that is magic to my ears because it means that we’re knocking on a door or looking at an opportunity that has not been presented before.
#5 How is your experience working with SourceFuse and AWS? Was the process everything you expected?
It has exceeded my expectations. We’re very grateful that Amazon Web Services and Amazon Health understood what we were looking to achieve from day one and that has been a very supportive process. They were the ones that said as you transition to this next phase, you should take a look at SourceFuse and work with them. That was a huge recommendation.
And so I really didn’t look elsewhere. Once we connected and I understood the value proposition, how professional everybody was, what a global team you have (that’s very important to me as well) I was very comfortable moving forward. The team at SourceFuse has been exceptional. I look forward to how we can grow together and do some great things to really produce healthier and happier outcomes for people. If anybody is looking to get into this space, I would highly encourage having a conversation with them to see what your options are.
#6 What gov cloud specific initiatives are in store for Trackable Health and how might other SMBs go about growing in that area?
Growth in that area is something I wish I could share because we’re still learning how to do that ourselves quite honestly. But the SBIR and STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) programs are great to look at. They previously would say: here are the problems we have – can you address these? They still do that but they also have what’s called an ‘open topic’ and in that you can tell them what they may not know or recognize as an issue, or even how to address the problems.
So being able to have a compliant solution, so that those boxes are all checked, they can just look at how our solution addresses their problems. This eases the transition and the acceptance so much more than it would if we didn’t have these things done already.
