Show HN: Kate's App
160 points ·
bhpreece
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Kate's App is a tool to coordinate doctor contact information, prescriptions, pharmacies, appointments, notes, and other information with family and caregivers, and do it safely and privately. This is not a clinic portal, and is not associated with any insurance or medical providers.
The app is 95% complete, and is entirely usable as is (for any interested beta users). I intend to clean up the rest of it, and go GA within a few weeks. In the meantime, I would love to answer any questions or hear helpful critiques.
BTW, Show HN is the best.
otterley ·7 days ago
See https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-reg... as a starting point. We might be able to recommend a lawyer to you if you tell us which state you're located in.
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gwbas1c ·7 days ago
If your goal is to "find a learning project," I suggest finding a very different "learning project." Otherwise, keep "Kate's app" private, word-of-mouth, invite-only for under 20 people.
The 1980s and 1990s are long-gone, you can no longer "learn as you go" when the consequences of your application malfunctioning have real-world implications.
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A few years ago, my employer used an HR app that appeared built by a novice. In that time period; they sent me a PDF with tax information for half the people in the company; and then they royally screwed up the tax information sent to the IRS for me.
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curious_cat_163 ·7 days ago
Just thought, I'd share what I think about the substance of the idea (not the implementation). I think a big untold story in the US healthcare system is how it shifts the burden of coordinating care to patients and/or their loved ones.
To be sure, there is a lot of decisions that the individual (or their NoK) should be making but the amount of paperwork that flies around and lack of coordination between say an insurance company and the provider is astounding. This becomes very pronounced for every corner case and the entire machinery is wired to record things in myriad systems but somehow not make things better when it comes to the core outcomes -- providing healthcare. Every entity in the food chain is out to (and does!) make a buck. Meanwhile, there is a wait time of > 30 days to meet one's primary care physician over a video chat!
So, I absolutely LOVE your idea. The implementation probably requires a lot of iterations here. One suspects that there are ways in which a consumer facing app could make some real money to level the playing field in favor of the patient while being a sustainable busienss.
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netdevphoenix ·6 days ago
Sadly, it is also vert HN like in the not so good sense. Unlike the software world, the real world is not ours to program as we see fit. In the real world, laws matter. And I am concerned that you haven't really read upon the consequences of doing an app like yours without any due diligence. You can't just use people's health data like that.
Anyone using this app could potentially sue you as you are likely breaking the law of the country you live in (I am going to guess it is an Anglo-Saxon country).
You should asap bring the app down, contact all users, send them their info, delete them from your servers, notifying them of that and get a lawyer specialising in health related law. With their assistance, you can build an organisation to build the app. This should also limit your liability.
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harvey9 ·7 days ago
Shame this is such a legal minefield. I do not think you should put this on GA.
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