Typhoid, Tuberculosis, Dengue, Oh My! – New App Targets Travel Health
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Mayo employees seem to be constantly dreaming up new and innovative ways to help improve the health care landscape for our patients and, really, the world. Fortunately, Mayo has programs like Mayo Clinic Ventures and Mayo's Employee Entrepreneurship Program to help make it all happen. Two recent beneficiaries of those services are Mayo's Rizwan Sohail, M.D., and Rashid Fehmi, whose Mayo Clinic Ventures-supported startup company, Travel Health & Wellness, recently launched a mobile app to help international travelers stay safe and healthy.
Based on technologies licensed from Mayo Clinic, the My Travel Health app is billed as "the only app developed by experienced travel medicine consultants that focuses on your health during travel and provides practical tips for preventing and handling illnesses while traveling." The app allows users to choose from more than 200 popular travel destinations and shows them, in real time, "customized recommendations" for any and all immunizations recommended or required for that part of the world.
"International travelers are frequently unaware or unprepared for common illnesses encountered during foreign travels, especially to developing countries," Dr. Sohail says in a press release published on Yahoo! Finance. As a result, he says those travelers "often end up spending valuable business or vacation time in hotel rooms due to illness, are forced to seek medical help in foreign countries, or return home with serious illnesses such as measles, typhoid, malaria, dengue or tuberculosis." To make sure that doesn't happen, Dr. Sohail says, "My Travel Health provides specific and easy-to-follow recommendations to prevent or deal with travel-related illnesses."
The app also tells you where there are travel alerts and gives you the option to sign up for the U.S. State Department's "Smart Traveler Enrollment Program," a free service that allows all U.S. citizens and nationals to make their travel plans known to local U.S. Embassies and Consulates throughout the world. The app will also store your immunization records, your doctor's contact information, allergies and medication information, and your health insurance information for easy access should you need them while traveling.
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