Introducing “Close Call” for the iPhone

Close Call was released to the App Store on Sept 7 (late that night from our calculations) and we invite you to check it out on your iPhone or iPod touch.

      

The Polka team built this application to enable individuals with iPhones to save a bit of key information on their wallpaper image, allowing another person to see this information if lost, or during an emergency, where the iPhone may be locked.

We’d like to thank all the reviewers and submitters of My Emergency Information, our paid application.  It was your feedback that caused our creative juices to flow.  Our team is working on adding Close Call functionality into My Emergency Info, making it even easier to keep your wallpaper up-to-date with your health records and contacts.  

• My Emergency Info: A premium application to share my detailed emergency health information with a doctor or emergency tech.  For those who are building towards a fully detailed record of useful heath information that would be helpful in case of emergency
• Close Call:  A one-step application to save my contact information and emergency summary for first-responders and put it on my Wallpaper on the iPhone

Close Call is free, My Emergency Information is $2.99.   We think both are a great value and will continue to innovate, for our health.

New “My Emergency Info” iPhone Application Now Live on Apple’s App Store

Formerly known as the iPhone Emergency Card, the new and improved My Emergency Info application is now live on Apple’s App Store.  Current users will receive an automatic update notification for the free update!  For new users, please visit the Apple App Store to download now.

Why the name change?  To stay in line with our branding, this new name better reflects Polka’s current and future offerings, as well as our goal to be clear on the intent and focus of this application, which is to provide a portable way to share key information about you.

We believe current and new users will be extremely impressed with the vast additional functionalities and features.  The short list includes:

– More precise emergency maps

– Management of more information in emergency profile

– New insurance field for pertinent insurance information

– Prescriptions section to detail all current medications

– Allergies section to include allergies to food, medications, and more

– Medical conditions section to alert emergency technicians

– Ability to add unlimited contacts

– Finer control and integration with free print card from Polka

– New navigation flow of application, allowing for new information to be easily accessible and viewable

Once again, we’d like to thank all of our users for their in-put and suggestions.  It’s vital to our success and meeting your needs.  Keep them coming!  

Release Candidate of My Emergency Info 1.1

It was only a month ago that we released our first version of the iPhone Emergency Card, and the next version is on its way very soon.  In fact, the release candidate is with Apple right now and we’re hoping for it to go live in the next days.

In the next version, we will include tighter integration with the print version of the card, ability to add more contacts, a prescription selector, an allergy picker, medical conditions listings, and insurer information.  Additionally, it is a free upgrade to those that have already purchased the iPhone Emergency Card.   Look for the update alert on your App Store logo.

All of our enhancements have come from some amazing feedback from users, and many of your requests and observations are incorporated in the new version.  We hope to keep the communication lines open, since our users have provided some of the best ideas yet.  For instance adding Prescriptions and Prescription Alerts was called out as key features to add to the application, and we feel it’s a great step in providing the right information, the first time.

We spent a lot of time working on the screen flow, keeping the contact info easy to grab for first-responders, while having richer access and management of more profile data.  A few screenshots:

We have a bunch of next requests that the Polka team is hard at work at for our next releases, a few submitted to us by our users:

> Why not allow user to enter whether a person is a smoker / non-smoker?  Or other characteristics?

> Can you provide a solution for when my phone is locked?

> Can this application integrate the rest of my portable health record and interface it with my doctor?

Thank you to the thousands of people of who have bought this app, we are continuing to innovate based on your suggestions. 

Polka’s New Version of the iPhone Emergency Card and Feedback on the Feedback

What would life be like without feedback?  Positive or negative, Polka welcomes it all – whether it validates our mission or challenges us to make our services even better.  The only thing worse would be no feedback at all. 

This week Polka founder and CEO Mike Kirkwood had a great interview on Inside Mac Radio about Polka and the iPhone Emergency Card.  Host Scott Sheppard, a well-respected member of the Mac community and avid technologist, commented, “at $2.99, this app is a no-brainer”

We’ve also received tons of feedback from our iPhone users both in the application reviews and via email.  We have a new release in the next week that will address many requests and some of the observations about the application.  It’s great to know there are so many people realizing how vital an application like the iPhone Emergency Card is to our daily lives.

In the new version to be released, we will include tighter integration with the print version of the card, more contacts, prescription selector, allergy picker, medical conditions, and insurer information.  The new version is a free upgrade to those that have already purchased the iPhone Emergency Card.  Have a look at some of the mockups of the app.

Introducing the iPhone Emergency Card

Polka’s first iPhone™ application – the iPhone Emergency Card – is making a stellar debut with Apple’s revolutionary App Store.  It is one of the few applications to go live with their new store announced today.  Powered by Polka’s Me Services™ and Me Server™, the iPhone Emergency Card provides essential life-saving information on the extremely popular iPhone and iPod® touch devices.    You can read the entire release here at BusinessWire. (free account required).  Or read our first article, By Dennis Sellers, at Macsimum News.

About Polka’s iPhone Emergency Card

Polka’s iPhone Emergency Card for the iPhone and iPod touch is available worldwide for $2.99 today and can be downloaded from the Apple App Store at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

Polka’s iPhone Emergency Card stores users’ important health and contact information securely and makes it accessible anytime, anywhere, and when they need it most during the critical moments of an emergency.  Too often, hospital and doctors’ IT systems are diverse and unconnected, creating a scenario where a patient’s basic information must be collected from scratch.  A simple, yet possibly life-saving, solution like the iPhone Emergency Card provides vital information at users’ and emergency technicians’ fingertips.

iPhone and iPod touch users can create the iPhone Emergency Card in a matter of minutes, and detail important personal information, including emergency contacts, blood type, and more.  Users can access maps to nearest hospitals and medical centers seamlessly within the application.  In addition, iPhone users can print a wallet-sized version of their card as a back-up and hard copy.

How the iPhone Emergency Card Works

Once you’ve downloaded the application, here are some step-by step instructions and pointers to help with any lingering questions:

1. Once you install the Emergency Card on your phone, it will ask you to Edit your information.  Put in your contacts by selecting them from your iPhone contact list and key medical information in the edit screen.  
2. You are now ready to go.  Click on the “Call” button next to your contact to immediately start dialing them.     (on iPod touch the number is displayed with no “Call” button)
3. To see a map of closest hospitals to your location, click on “Map Closest Hospitals.” It will ask your permission to use your location, and will then locate the closest matches for hospitals in your location using the iPhone Google Map interfaces.   
4. To send yourself a card for printing, go to Edit Profile page and select “Create Printable Version”.  It will ask for an email address to send the card and for you to set a password.  You will be sent a card in email, which will also have a link to Polka’s website that you can logo-n and edit the card if needed.

Emergency Card Beta is Live on Web

We’re thrilled to post that our first web application, the free Emergency Card, is now live!

The Polka team has opened the application to our friends and family who will receive initial access to the emergency card as we do final tests to the system.  In a few weeks, it will be open to everyone.

We have so many great applications for managing healthcare in the pipeline that, initially, it was hard to choose the first one.  

Why the Emergency Card?  Well, we realized that everyone needs an emergency card, regardless of your state of health.   It’s as vital as your ID or cell phone.  

Polka’s Emergency Card stores your important health and contact information and makes it accessible when you need it most during the critical moments of an emergency – whenever and wherever you are.  A simple tool like an Emergency Card could save your life.  It sets you and your loved ones’ minds at ease, knowing that vital information is at emergency technicians’ fingertips.  This is why we have made a basic, yet essential, capability for the modern world free to you.    Plus, it’s a perfect example and fusion of our technology for the My Health, My Team portal, releasing this summer.

The first version of the free Emergency Card will provide users with a card in a matter of minutes.  In addition, you can choose to store the Emergency Card on Polka to change or edit in the future, or share with your emergency contact.  As time goes on, we will delve deeper to manage more information through the card and your profile as Polka layers the next services for your health.  

We’ve also completed a release candidate version for the iPhone for the iTunes App Store.  See the previous blog post.  Exciting times.

Now for some housekeeping:

To learn more about and build your Emergency Card now, please visit:

 http://www.polka.com/ecard.php

A few tips as you build your Emergency Card:

• Print it for your wallet and put it in a place that is easy to find.  Note that many Kinko’s and other copy stores have a lamination service where you can make it more protected for a nominal fee.
• Don’t put anything too private on the card that isn’t essential to your emergency health.
• Add notes to your card that may help treat you in an emergency.  Especially if you have special conditions, allergies, or reactions to drugs.
• All feedback welcome! http://www.polka.com/info

Testing the Emergency Card for the iPhone

Polka’s release candidate for the iPhone App Store is being released from under-wraps.    

It’s been an amazing journey viewing the world from an Apple perspective since we downloaded the SDK in April and got started. Thank you to everyone at Apple for the opportunity to leverage the most powerful communication platform the world has ever seen.  

Some key features in our first beta application for My Health are shown below.  

Screenshot 1

Mike’s phone, with My Emergency Info app (top row, second from left). 

Screenshot 2

The My Emergency Info, after being initially setup by the user, has the user’s critical information in one place.  In this first screen, the user has their top two emergency contacts (click button to call them) and info about the person (date of birth and blood-type), as well as the ability to find the closest hospitals on the map.

Screenshot 3 

Edit the emergency information here to store on the iPhone.  Optional:  Have Polka send you a card for you wallet!

Deep Breath

For the past year, it seems like we’ve been holding our breath – trying to determine the sweet spot for our technology and business model, while getting investors interested in Polka.

And finally it all came together.

We have our initial funding.  Best of all, we found our direction and where Polka fits in the world.  We spent a year building the precision identity platform that allows you to publish your data and control who it is shared with.  Our business goals are directly tied to the basis of a good life – your health – and it just feels right.

We are applying Polka technology to enable greater, streamlined access to your healthcare management online and through mobile phones, as well as collaboration with your health support team of family, friends, and health professionals.  The problem out there is huge, but we’re ready to tackle it and begin to empower users with the new, patent-pending Me Server(TM) and the My Health and My Team portals.

Everything is clicking just as it should.  We have arrived with the right business at the right time and with the right people.  Feedback from key stakeholders and the industry has been overwhelmingly positive.  We’re perfectly aligned and quietly gaining momentum at a rapid pace because the healthcare industry is ready for a solution and evolution.  And we’re ready to deliver.

Breathe in deep.  We’re taking the plunge, and remembering to focus on each moment along the way.

Welcome to Polka.   My Health, My Team  

Me Server™

Me Server™ is a new technology that enables “me” to publish all the information I choose both securely and confidently, while controlling the sharing of it with other subscribers when I need it most.

Me Server is the first system to represent me and abstract on the network for the express purpose of sharing it securely across all of the networks I participate in.  It is the architecture that is powering Polka’s applications, and it’s the next-generation identity framework that, for the first time, is oriented around me.

Traditionally, identity software and systems have focused on the “me” inside the system.  Polka embraces the vision of an open and portable web that shares the version of “me” within these networks.  Me Server is my memory of tactical and strategic things, and in Polka’s health applications becomes life changing.

Me Server was invented to address the economics of the large-scale systems and integrate it with a new solution.  Polka treats the individual as a peer to the enterprise, and gives the individual tools to keep affairs in order.   An empowering idea at its core, Me Server also provides a new pattern of systems integration that allows my identity to move beyond websites and into my life. 

Me Server is a new alternative to the log-on challenges throughout the myriad of healthcare systems by bringing, for the first time, secure record-sharing across multiple channels to manage health interests.  The innovation of Me Server is the spark to solving the challenges of health records management.

With Me Server, I can share my information with whom I want and when I want, starting with the Emergency Network and Emergency Card where I can share my key health information in case of emergency and connect my emergency contact, doctor, and emergency technician immediately.  

That’s what I’d expect, from a Me on the network.   Coming soon.

Random Acts of Love: Do Good for Your Sweetie

Another Valentine’s Day!

Trying to get reservations at an overcrowded restaurant for an expensive prix fixe menu? Running off to the corner shop to buy overpriced flowers and chocolates at the last minute?

Relax!

Polka has a way to really treat your sweethearts to something memorable. Welcome to Random Acts of Love — the latest Polka initiative.

This year why not send your sweetie a special Polka-gram with a wonderful gift straight from the heart. Instead of that bouquet and candy box, why not plant some bulbs and buy a box of fair trade chocolates? That overpriced dinner? How about donating to your honey’s favorite charity and buy dinner for those less fortunate?

With our Random Acts of Love initiative, you can demonstrate your love in a unique, thoughtful way by substituting those tired Valentine gifts for something that will make a positive impact. There are lots of great choices and opportunities. We’re sure your Valentine will always remember this gift that can change lives around the world or make a difference right in your own home.

Sending a Valentine’s Polka-gram is free and it’s ok to send more than one!

All Random Acts of Love Polka-grams will be sent on February 14. Cruise on over to the Random Acts of Love and share the love: http://alpha.polka.com/love.php

Step-by-step instructions:

• Click the “Style” button and choose between four styles to customize the look of your Valentine Polka-gram. Once you’ve found the one you like, click it..
• Click the “Quote” button and choose one of our many heartfelt quotes to include in your message. Be sure to click through the pages until you find the one that’s just right for you. Select the “Pick” button when you find one that’s appropriate, and it will be highlighted.
• Click the “Gift” button – and here’s where it really gets good. You’ll have the opportunity to tell your loved one that “Instead of buying chocolate or candy, I will…” And you choose what seems right for you and your sweetie. Make a positive impact on the world with a donation or promise to do something personal for and with them. Be sure to click through the pages until you find the best choice. All options, including the charitable ideas, are linked to sites for you to take further action or for more ideas. Select the “Pick” button when you find one that’s right, and it will be highlighted.
• Click the “Message” button, and you’ll be able to enter a personal message and the appropriate email addresses to send it to your sweetie. You can also include your email for a confirmation to be sent. Don’t worry. We won’t ever bug you or your sweetheart with marketing or spam. When you’re done, click the red “X” button in the right-hand corner or “Close” button below and your selection will appear in the message window.
• Take a look at your Valentine, and if it’s all good (and we’re sure it is!), click the “Done and Send It” button at the right-hand corner. Your Polka-gram will be delivered on February 14, and if you included your email in the “Message” section, you will receive a confirmation.
• Still have questions? Email us at info@polka.com