Brother & Sister Team Founded Company To Improve Healthcare By Creating IT Tools
Growing up, siblings Kyna and Conan Fong were always in close proximity to healthcare, as their father is a physician with his own practice. Their extensive experience in the field allowed them to see cracks in the process, and in 2014, the duo founded Elation EMR, a company that streamlines the patient care process by providing electronic medical records. Kyna and Conan discuss what led them to develop the technology, as well as how it is changing the industry leading to better care for patients and less work for doctors and other staff members.
Growing up in medicine
Kyna's introduction to the medical field began when she was young and assisting with her father's practice. She states, "I've served as full-time receptionist, billing staff and office manager. I saw first hand the disconnect that occurs between patients and front-line clinicians, and it stood out as a threat to patient care. I thought that technology could be used to enhance this critically important aspect in everyone's life." The basis behind Elation EMR is the idea that healthcare records should be easily accessible by physicians and other providers, and should be easy to transfer to other providers.
Building on past experience
To develop the company's current technology platform, the team utilized knowledge from Kyna's experiences in her father's practice, as well as her background with healthcare policy. Prior to founding Elation EMR, Kyna was a professor at Stanford University and a scholar with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her brother Conan brought experience with medical records and technology to the table. He states, "Before founding Elation EMR, I was a medical consultant, working with senior healthcare leaders to digitize health records. I also worked with physicians to help use various applications in their practices, but I noticed that existing implementations too often leave physicians with sub-optimal tools to perform life-changing services."
Utilizing a network
Seeing this untapped market as an opportunity to improve the healthcare system, the Fong siblings utilized their network of healthcare professionals to design digitized record technology that closed the gaps in the current system. Conan states, "We sought to develop information technology to significantly improve the delivery of healthcare with better IT tools than are generally available now." While developing these tools, the team took note of current weaknesses in many healthcare management systems. Both Kyna and Conan were involved in the healthcare field, and they also have experience with computer science. Their vast network of professional colleagues allowed them to approach software development from many angles, and to get financial backing for their company.
When working in an established industry, it is easy to identify potential changes that need to be made, and if you tap into your network and use your previous experience to your advantage, you may find yourself in a position to make these changes.
This article was written by Alaina Brandenburger of Examiner.com for CBS Small Business Pulse.
