Almost all of us have that one cupboard at home dedicated to storing documents and files of importance- a major chunk of it, medical. Each paper contributes to the building of one’s medical history but physically managing them all is a painstaking task.

Almost every doctor’s visit today, calls for showing of past records. Every annual health check brings with it a fresh pile of reports. In case of a medical emergency, finding the right document can be a challenge with the papers themselves aging, yellowing or tearing. And of course, there’s also that exasperating possibility when you discover that the medical record you are looking for simply does not exist because you’ve lost it owing to a minor oversight.

It’s annoying therefore to find that in an age of smartphones and electronic everything, hospitals and labs rarely provide soft copies of reports and prescriptions.

This is where a new app called Healthmemo comes into focus.

Available on Android and IOS platforms, the Healthmemo app allows you to store all your medical records in a safe encrypted repository. One simply needs to take a picture of the document and upload it for future record. So right from your doctor’s prescription, to lap reports to insurance papers, you can have it all stored, with personal comments and notes, for convenient, easy and immediate access in case of urgency.

More on the application can be found on the website.

Currently the app claims to have more than twenty thousand downloads. Created by the Chennai-based company Mooneye, the app uses private cloud to store all the information and SSL to encrypt data from client to server storage. And its authentication system is custom built.

Given that the adoption of cloud computing services in India is still at a nascent stage, especially in the healthcare sector, it will be interesting to see how popular an app like this can get. The biggest hindrance in its adoption still might be the traditional healthcare system in most hospitals where physical documentation is given more preference. Very few hospitals make full blown use of IT infrastructure and its penetration is still low. There’s also the case of urbanization. One knows that the use of the app will be limited to those who can not only afford a smartphone but also know how to fully utilize its features. This perhaps will limit its usage to the big metro cities and the more plush hospitals that are willing to accept a report over an app.

Its biggest advantage though is the instant availability of information in case of medical emergencies. I ahve just started using this application and so far have faced no real challenges. The interface is smooth and uncluttered.

So how do you feel about moving your medical records to the cloud?