Uxbridge resident creates high-tech health app
Roger Varley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A new app that allows for the collection and bundling of all one's personal medical records from various locations, has been created by well-known Uxbridge resident Don Simmonds.
Simmonds' four-year-old company, Vitall Intelligence, also enables people to do their own personal health testing by using a smartphone to check respiration, blood pressure, weight, heart rate and various other indicators. He said the app is compatible with other wearable health devices (like FitBit and Apple Watch).
"One in four people have a wearable device and 50 per cent use it every day," Simmonds said.
But it is the access to medical records that is the spine of the business. Simmonds said the app allows patients to access the past and present records of tests, hospital visits, X-rays, lab work and other information, wherever that information is stored.
THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT - Don Simmonds, founder of Vitall Intelligence, recently presented ‘Vitall Engage’, an app that assists with the collection and bundling of personal medical records, in council chambers. More on the app can be found at vitall.com Photo by Justyne Edgell
Simmonds, well-known for his work with the USS Tigers hockey team, said the service is currently being marketed to health-care providers, who can then determine if their own patients need the service. Insurance companies can also access the service. As Simmonds noted, travellers who need medical assistance will be able to show out-of-town health professionals their up-to-date records. He pointed out that medical records can be accessed only with the permission of the patient involved and hospitals have to release the records if the patient authorizes it.
"It's not for everyone," Simmonds said. "It's for those who really value their health and might have health problems."
To use the service, one must have a cell phone or smartphone, or a laptop. Simmonds said payments for the service range from $20 to $100 a month, but the payments are not covered by OHIP. He said his company's revenues have grown by 100 per cent each year, with much of that revenue coming from insurance companies.
Simmonds described himself as a "tech visionary." He said he started the company because he looks at whatever technology is available and determines new and different uses. He said Vitall will enable people in remote locations, including Indigenous people, to check their health without having to travel long distances to hospitals.
"What I want people to know is, I don't bash health systems," he said, "but (Vitall) is set up to respond to an issue. Vitall provides a more preventative approach."
At a small ceremony at the township offices a couple of weeks ago, Simmonds announced that Vitall has recently received over $1 million in funding from a couple of sources. Several new investors, including a Canadian physician investment group, put up $625,000 and Vitall also received $500,000 from the Ontario Centre of Innovation and the Ontario Life Sciences Innovation Fund.
Simmonds said he was proud that the company started in Uxbridge.
"Tech usually doesn't happen in small towns," he said.
Simmonds is not stranger to the telecommunication industry. In 1977, he began his management career as a founding partner of The Lenbrook Group, a private business incubation company known for having created Clearnet, one of Canada’s then three wireless networks which was sold to Telus in 2001.
Simmonds also founded AirIQ, a company that pioneered the wireless GPS tracking industry, providing remote location and control of vehicle fleets and marine vessels throughout North America.
He is currently the chairman and CEO of Blyth Group, a “family office that places financial and human capital behind ideas with global impact.” (blythgroup.ca)