Kanda Software- Developed Digital Health Mobile Application Rescufy Wins University of Pennsylvania AppitUP Challenge

AppitUP received nearly 200 mobile application ideas from UPenn’s faculty, students and staff. All submissions were reviewed and rated by local investors. Investors scored the ideas on 4 criteria: potential for commercialization; marketability; innovation and fundability. Based on the strength of those ratings, the top ten mobile application ideas were presented to UPenn software development partners; six ideas were selected to advance to the finals and have the prototype built.

Rescufy is the first mobile application utilizing upcoming capabilities of Text-to-911. The application serves as a checklist that streamlines the action plan for responding to severe allergic reactions from food allergies, particularly for parents and caregivers. Rescufy allows people with allergies to get help quickly in case of anaphylactic shock, and provide emergency medical technicians and hospital personnel essential background information about the patient. Rescufy allows for a more effective, potentially life-saving, treatment of an unconscious or otherwise incapacitated patient.

With one touch of a button, Rescufy mobile app will send critical information to 911 first responders and emergency contacts. Medical condition and history, contact information, geo-location and medications taken are included in the text message. Rescufy enables first responders and emergency contacts to react quickly and appropriately in cases when a patient is experiencing anaphylactic shock.

As Sheree Revilla, CEO of Rescufy, put it: “We cannot thank Kanda enough for all the work and support… you have already given Rescufy our wings. We hope to continue the relationship and leverage Kanda’s strengths to power Rescufy.”

Kanda development team has applied an extensive experience in mobile and custom UI design and software development for digital healthcare companies and created a user friendly, extremely rapid to use, easy to navigate and fully functional application. The implementation of the geo-location and lock screen emergency call button simplifies access to the Rescufy app and automatically transfers essential data to 911 and emergency contacts. As the app matures many more features such as Cloud-based data sharing and EMR integration will make it even more useful and ubiquitous on the mobile devices of people who suffer from conditions that might incapacitate them on short notice. Additionally, David Edwards, the Founder of Rescufy, sees the potential for developing companion apps with pharmaceutical and biotech companies working on new allergy treatments.

About Kanda Software:
Kanda Software eHealth expertise goes back well over a decade to a Hospital Floor Networking integrated with Hospital Information Systems for Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. Over the last ten years Kanda was an important contributor in development of On-line Pharmaceutical Knowledge Base for Wolters Kluwer, EMR Integration for Partners Health Care, and Ontological Analytics for Reed Elsevier. Kanda teams have worked and continue working on such diverse aspects of eHealth as using Genomics and Translational Medicine for better Cancer Diagnostics for Intervention Insights, physicians’ professional exchanges for Sermo, predictive medical gaming for WorldOne, payer integration with patient transition management for Curaspan, and insurance optimization for Fuse Benefits.

In the process Kanda has mastered the various technical and security facets of health-oriented development. The products we helped develop run in the Cloud, as SaaS, in Client/Server configurations in the Data Center, on Desktops and on a variety of mobile devices. We are well versed in and conscientious of doing development in a highly regulated, often HIPAA-compliant environment.

About AppitUP:
AppItUP is a University-wide initiative spearheaded by UPstart, the Penn business incubator that works with faculty, staff and students to develop a strategy around company formation with an emphasis on collaborative research. Founded in 2010, UPstart has launched 57 companies, raised $15.5 million and created more than 50 jobs. UPstart’s most recent project was AppItUP, a new challenge designed to gather the best mobile app ideas from the Penn community and connect them with the funding and technical resources to develop their proposed products.

Around the web

The tirzepatide shortage that first began in 2022 has been resolved. Drug companies distributing compounded versions of the popular drug now have two to three more months to distribute their remaining supply.

The 24 members of the House Task Force on AI—12 reps from each party—have posted a 253-page report detailing their bipartisan vision for encouraging innovation while minimizing risks. 

Merck sent Hansoh Pharma, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company, an upfront payment of $112 million to license a new investigational GLP-1 receptor agonist. There could be many more payments to come if certain milestones are met.