BANGALORE: Zoho, one of the most exciting global software product companies to come out of India, has taken social networking to where it is needed most: families with chronically ill members.
MedicalMine, Inc. founded by Zoho CEO Sidhar Vembu’s wife Dr Pramila Srinivasan, has launched ChARMTracker, a webbased application for autism treatment management. The enterprising couple, with a 10-year-old son, who is recovering from autism, is deeply involved in the project.
ChARMTracker, short for Children’s Autism Recovery Map Tracker, provides a free tool for parents of children with autism to keep a daily record of medical interventions such as prescriptions, diets and educational devices that may influence their child’s behaviour.
It helps them understand the impact of various interventions and learn from the experience of other parents. ChARMtracker further enables parents import lab results and generate reports and medical charts for doctors.
“For a decade, parents have been waiting for technology to deliver on the promise of autism treatment data management.
There is an urgent need to gather, systematize and learn from all the anecdotal information about treatments, interventions and outcomes to accelerate the process of working towards a standard of care for autism,” said Dr Srinivasan in a statement.
ChARMtracker is currently being used by more than 300 families worldwide and their number is said to be multiplying daily. As the network grows, it would generate massive data on the impact of various interventions such as drugs, supplements, therapies and diet. This invaluable data from hundreds of thousands of potential contributors would help doctors and researchers find better cure for autism.
Sridhar Vembu said, “ChARM is positioned to help the entire community, physicians and researchers finally understand what we can do to treat our children successfully as well as to prevent new cases.