When I attended the Healthcare IT Leadership Summit a few months ago here in Atlanta, I had the pleasure of seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and learning about up and coming technologies - from veteran healthcare IT folks and fresh-faced students, too. One company in particular caught the crowd’s eyes late in the day. SoloHealth was awarded the inaugural Intel Innovation Award for its health and wellness kiosk. What struck me most about the company was that its technology was far from a solo effort. Founder and CEO Bart Foster brought up his entire team to accept the award with him, proving that it takes a talented group of folks to take a healthcare IT start-up from boot strap to an anticipated nationwide rollout in 2012.

 The company, which got started in 2007, first offered EyeSite self-service vision screening kiosks throughout the US. After a sizeable grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2010, SoloHealth took the screening kiosk concept a few steps further, evolving it into the SoloHealth Station. This newer kiosk, which has been in limited release since early 2011, screens for vision, blood pressure, weight and body mass index, and provides an overall health assessment free of charge. There are currently 225 kiosks at various Wal-Mart, Safeway and Sam’s Club locations in select markets.

I recently chatted with Foster about the anticipated national roll out, and the implications mobile health will play in the evolution of SoloHealth products.

The press release detailing SoloHealth’s expected growth in 2012 mentions that you’ll combine retail kiosks with “online/digital, mobile and emerging platforms.” Tell me how you envision this developing over the next six to 12 months. Is there a mobile app in Solo Health’s future? 
Bart Foster: As we all know, consumers are increasingly accessing content/information across numerous platforms, including via the Internet, mobile and social. Although the kiosk is a consumer’s first interaction with SoloHealth, we plan to make their data accessible via all these platforms to allow for convenience and ease of use on a regular basis. Of course, the consumer can always access their data via a kiosk, but giving them access across multiple touch points provides a more holistic interaction. A mobile app is certainly a key consumer interaction element and we are in the exploratory phase regarding a SoloHealth Station mobile app. Expect to hear more on that in early 2012. 

When I chatted with you briefly at the summit in Atlanta, you mentioned that you want people to keep coming back to these kiosks – that they won’t be just a one-time visit. How do you envision doing this? 
SoloHealth will build relationships with consumers by enabling them to track and trend their biometrics over time. Through web, mobile and social media tools, SoloHealth will keep content fresh and engaging.

Do you ever foresee adding a social element to the kiosks or the online component – Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, etc.?
Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are becoming mainstream communication platforms for many consumers and will be increasingly important in the future. So we certainly see the value of providing a strong social presence and are already in discussions regarding what that social presence would entail and when to roll out.

What is the company’s biggest goal for 2012? 
The biggest goal is the successful nationwide rollout of the SoloHealth Station with our national retail partners. This will give the SoloHealth Station scale and allow us to deliver a unique and personal consumer interaction for our retail and advertising partners nationwide, as well as provide consumers access to valuable health data that will empower them to take their healthcare into their own hands.
 

Jennifer Dennard is Social Marketing Director for Atlanta-based Billian's HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. Connect with her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.