These bracelets could be life-savers

WEAR IT PROUD: Angelo Pitassi Jr.’s company, HealthID Profile Inc., was formed in 2011 with a focus on utilizing technology to store and share data on medical bracelets online. “The physical products are a conduit,” he explained. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ MICHAEL PERSSON
WEAR IT PROUD: Angelo Pitassi Jr.’s company, HealthID Profile Inc., was formed in 2011 with a focus on utilizing technology to store and share data on medical bracelets online. “The physical products are a conduit,” he explained. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ MICHAEL PERSSON

When he founded HealthID Profile Inc., Angelo Pitassi Jr. saw medical-identification bracelets as an underserved niche market within the large and lucrative world of health care products.
But when he began thinking more seriously about the problem medical bracelets are made to solve – alerting potential caregivers to chronic medical conditions – Pitassi realized they were also part of the broader personal-health-information market now being transformed by digital technology.
In the long run, Pitassi expects personal medical information will be stored and transmitted to doctors electronically, instead of on bracelets or wallet cards.
With its customizable, low-cost medical bracelets, HealthID hopes to use a winning physical product to become a player in the business of helping patients manage their health.
“Eventually everything will be accessible through your mobile device,” Pitassi said. “The physical products are a conduit. The true value is what is stored in the cloud and accessed from an app. The smartphone is going to be key.”
With a background in the jewelry industry, Pitassi, of Cranston, became aware of the medical-bracelet market when his son, Angelo III, was diagnosed with diabetes in 2006 and was required to wear one.
Over the next few years, Pitassi was dismayed at both the price and quality of the offerings available and decided he could make something better.
“We found we would go through [bracelets] very quickly – the stainless-steel plates where the information is printed and engraved would wear out and be illegible,” Pitassi said. “There was never anything unique about them and I wondered how they could ask for this type of money, $30 for a basic one and more for anything personalized.”
At the time Pitassi was winding down Apitaz LLC, which had sold excess brand-name jewelry at a discount, but his knowledge of jewelry manufacturing convinced him he could make a more fashionable medical bracelet than what existed, at a lower price.
He started from the fashion end and designed bracelets in different styles, many appealing to children, with attachable charms. But as the business has matured, Pitassi has begun to focus more on the back-end information technology part of the product.
This year Pitassi went through startup accelerator Betaspring, which helped him refine the company’s technology and marketing strategy. After graduating from Betaspring, Pitassi moved HealthID from Cranston to leased space at 95 Chestnut St. in Providence, the Knowledge District building that is home to the accelerator and a tech-startup nexus.
From the start, a key component of HealthID was that anyone who purchases a bracelet gets a unique HealthID Profile number and free access to upload their information into the company’s online database.
To expand the amount of information that could be stored directly on HealthID bracelets and give potential care providers the fastest possible way to access it, Pitassi has recently jumped into Near Field Communication, the technology that allows two cellphones to trade songs or other data by touching them together.
This fall HealthID redesigned their bracelets to include NFC, so a doctor can access all of a patient’s stored information just by touching the bracelet to another NFC device.
HealthID’s wallet cards are also NFC-capable and Pitassi is working on a line of fitness apparel with embedded health information.
Although he had hoped to use American manufacturing, Pitassi said these electronic elements leave little choice but to have the bracelets made in China.
Pitassi said the HealthID system can help manage medical conditions through tools such as alerts that help remind users when to take medication.
The HealthID Android app that launched this fall can send text messages and email reminders. Eventually, he said, medical devices, such as blood-pressure cuffs, will communicate directly with a patient’s mobile phone, automatically updating their health records.
Since HealthID relaunched this fall, Pitassi said he has sold at least 1,000 bracelets and cards and has agreements with retailers, including Amazon, Toys “R” Us and Home Shopping Network, to carry their product starting in 2014. •

COMPANY PROFILE
HealthID Profile Inc.
OWNER: Angelo Pitassi Jr., majority shareholder
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Personal medical information management
LOCATION: 95 Chestnut St., Providence
EMPLOYEES: Two full time, plus one full-time consultant and one part time
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2011
ANNUAL SALES: NA

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