A tech start-up in South Carolina, US has launched an app that allows consumers to quickly and securely sort individual medical records using advanced photo capture technology to interpret and read data.

Unlike its competitor, Microsoft’s Health Vault app, ChartSpan eliminates the need to upload or type data by harnessing the camera function on an iPhone or iPad.

The app was designed for patients who want to manage their own records without relying on doctors, hospitals and clinics to do it for them. The use of paper-based records and the difficulty patients experience in requesting copies of their medical record became the driver for the development of the app. “The personal electronic health record keeping system will have particular interest to two groups- chronically ill people and mothers juggling records for their entire family,” said ChartSpan Medical Technologies Inc. CEO and co-founder Jon-Michial Carter.

App Annie analytics showed that among thousands of apps in the medical category, the ChartSpan iPad app ranks in sixth place and the iPhone version ranks at 22nd place. According to Carter, the popularity of the app is indicative of the demand from the public to use mobile and electronic technology to collect medical records simply.

The app uses security standards equivalent to the National Security Agency and encryption to protect the data while stored and transferred between devices.

“We would have released the app six months ago if we didn’t take encryption so seriously,” said Carter. “We really locked down this data and made it so secure and extremely private.”

ChartSpan aims to create a dynamic big-data solution capable of communicating with itself to interpret patterns and provide preventative suggestions. “Imagine getting a prompt saying ‘Based on your current data and your historical data, we think you need to go to the doctor,’” said Carter.

An Android version of the app is scheduled to be released by January 2015 and a desktop version by April 2015.

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