Salt Lake-based health-tech company takes lead

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Matt Berry, CEO of Orca Health and BYU alumnus, has decided to team up with Harvard to develop some groundbreaking apps for smartphones and tablets. The partnership has allowed for many user-friendly and informational health apps to change the technology front in the world of healthcare.

Orca Health is a health technology company that has teamed up with Harvard Medical to change the way healthcare caters to individuals on a global level.

“By interacting, touching, seeing, hearing and augmenting reality,” Berry said, “Orca Health apps improve learning and retention of information which enables users to make much better decisions about their care and better follow the treatment plans their physicians outlined for them.”

According to Berry, the desire that people take their health more seriously has become a driving force in the success of Orca Health. By creating apps focusing on specific parts of the body, people can focus more fully on their problems.

Apps developed in conjunction with Harvard Medical range from HeartDecide to KidsDental, an app with interactive flossing, brushing and other features relevant to dental care, can help kids understand the importance of proper hygiene while enjoying themselves.

Chad Zeluff, one of the company’s two iOS developers, says they are revolutionizing health care.

“Each week, I receive emails from patients and doctors expressing their interest in the apps, how they’ve used them, and improvements that should be made to make the app better in a specialist’s practice,” he said.

According to Zeluff, since the relaunch of the apps in January, there have been 1.4 million downloads. This number is significant as medical apps are one of the smaller categories on the App store. They even won the best selling app award in 2011.

Robert Berry is a physician who worked on the development of the apps. His clinical and conceptual input helped the design team create apps that were patient-friendly and beneficial to target audiences.

“We cannot provide access to the best and brightest practitioners for all, but we can show what they recommend,” Dr. Robert Berry said. “The Harvard partnership and their early adoption of our approach makes the concepts scalable to a global audience.”

Robert Berry believes bringing healthcare into the home as an every-day thing has been and will continue to be key in the advancement of the company.

The BYU community represents well among Orca Health as many employees are alumni. The company currently has a number of internships available for which BYU students can apply.

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