Bridging The Gap: A HIPAA-Compliant, EHR-Integrated Mobile Health App To Enhance Pediatric Respiratory Care Access In Rural and Tribal Areas

The MamaBear Health (MBH) smartphone app developed by Loon Medical aims to revolutionize pediatric respiratory care access particularly for families in underserved rural and tribal communities. This Phase 2 SBIR project focuses on enhancing the app's security HIPAA compliance and integration with Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems addressing critical barriers to widespread adoption and utilization. The primary objectives are to implement robust encryption and access controls to safeguard Protected Health Information (PHI) across all touchpoints including the smartphone app cloud-based server and web links. This involves conducting comprehensive risk assessments developing HIPAA-compliant policies and procedures and implementing technical measures such as encryption access controls and auditing mechanisms. Additionally this phase will research and develop a detailed integration plan for seamlessly integrating MBH with Epic's widely-used EHR system. This includes identifying technical requirements data formats vendor-specific guidelines and determining the most suitable integration method. Extensive usability testing will be conducted at the University of Minnesota with parents and clinicians to ensure the app's user-friendliness efficiency and effectiveness in capturing and reviewing symptom data video exams and treatment outcomes. The findings will guide improvements to enhance the overall user experience. Upon successful completion of this phase MBH will be a secure HIPAA-compliant app and integrated into Epic's Connection Hub. This will facilitate remote parent-specialist consultations virtual diagnoses and enable proper insurance reimbursement ultimately improving pediatric respiratory care access and outcomes in underserved areas while promoting healthcare equity.