Answering those very personal questions at the doctors office can seem a little too close for comfort for a lot patients, and doubly so for many teens. But a new app launching today, called Docket, aims to give patients an alternative way to answer those questions, while offering providers an easier way to collect patients’ health data. 

“What we really honing in on is the problem of patient-provider communication. So the idea [is] that people are more open and transparent communicating with phones than care providers,” Michael Perretta, founder of Docket, told MobiHealthNews. “That is particularly clear in situations when we are talking about abuse, whether that is addiction, physical abuse, sexual abuse, assault … we want to help make those conversations easier.”

The patient check-in platform aggregates five different type of information: patient-reported data, physician-reported data, adherence trends, wearable device inputs, and metadata.

It can also provide patient engagement tools and appointment intake. For example, the app can send HIPAA-compliant message to patients before their appointment with specific reminders, such as “remember to fast before coming in.” 

The team decided to hone in on the 13-18 age bracket, but has plans to extend the platform to general medicine as well.  

“We see that as a niche that is underrepresented in the digital health space,” Perretta said. “We think our solution will be most able to get adoptions from adolescents who are used to technologies from Foursquare and Venmo.”

Before an appointment, the provider can send the patient an invitation to set up a Docket account. When a patient signs in they are brought to a “boarding pass” screen. Here they fill in questions about their lifestyle, care team, health, and family. Patients are also able to connect their wearable device to the platform, which will collect activity data and trends. The platform is designed to generate medication reminders based on prescription inputs as well. 

Doctors have a web-based provider portal where they can view patient data that is embedded in Docket, print or save PDFs of patients data, and print HIPAA procedures. 

Each provider is assigned a unique QR code. A patient who comes into the practice and can scan the QR code on their phone and a report of their data will be printed. After the appointment, the provider can upload anything from lab results to health records onto the app for the patient to see, according to Peretta. 

Right now Peretta and Technical Lead Nathan Scott are focused on partnerships with small to medium providers. Eventually the team plans to explore larger providers. 

The startup hopes to make a profit by charging the provider $0.10 per patient check-in. Currently the company has $75,000 in funding, according to Crunchbase. 

Most of that funding comes in the form of prize money from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Services. In May, Docket was named one of two winners in HHS’ Move Health Data Forward challenge. The challenge was dedicated to finding applications that let people share their personal health safely and securely with health care providers, family members, and caregivers. The other winner, Live and Leave Well, focused on end-of-life care. 

Pediatric engagement has been a growing topic in digital health. GetWellNetwork, another pediatric patient tool currently being used in hospitals, is designed to help hospitals guide patients and their families through self-management of their conditions, pre-and post-admission care, and overall health education while also improving hospital outcome goals.