Remote Peruvian villages seem like an unlikely testing ground for the latest devices in MedTech. Unless you're Binary Bridge founder Lori Most.
Most, a veteran of the healthcare scene, started the organization last summer to provide software solutions for humanitarian organizations. The company's first project, BackpackEMR, aims to bring electronic medical record systems (EMRs), like those typically found in hospitals, to rugged, rural villages around the world.
"There are big challenges to working in that environment, and it makes sense why tech hasn't made its way there," Most said. "Sometimes there's no electricity, and there's often no consistent internet connection, which all software needs today."
To solve this problem, Most created BackpackEMR, an offline, peer-to-peer networking system for iOS devices. iPads using the software exchange patient information with others on the network, and later upload those files to a cloud system when the device is connected to wifi.
In addition to organizing medical records, BackpackEMR also helps the nonprofit groups running the clinics track data like the number and type of surgeries conducted, as well as common injuries, implants and treatment outcomes.
Most said the idea came to her while traveling with her sister, a physician's assistant, to clinics in rural villages around Peru in 2013.
By necessity, all medical records were on paper, Most said, leading to a system that could be "cumbersome and chaotic" for the doctors and patients that relied on them. And while iPads were occasionally used, they had no way of electronically sharing things like notes and photos with other physicians at the clinic.
Most began piloting a prototype of Backpack EMR in 2015, and received grant funding to bring the system to Peru later that year. Twelve months later, she quit her job in healthcare to work full-time on Binary Bridge and BackpackEMR. Now, after a successful two-year pilot in Peru, Most plans to bring bring her software to West Africa this fall, then potentially Haiti.
BackpackEMR is currently the sole focus of Binary Bridge, but Most said that she hopes eventually it will be one of the last things doctors worry about in an already chaotic clinical setting filled with supply shortages and language barriers.
"When doctors go to these clinics, they have a million things on their mind," Most said. "We want to take a factor out of that."
