Introducing Medical Priority: An Emergency SOS App for People With Serious Health Conditions

At a pitch last week, a man walked up to us after the talk. He had a heart condition, and he said something we have not been able to forget:

“If an emergency comes, I have no one who could help me.”

He is not alone. Millions of people in India live with a condition that can turn dangerous in minutes: a heart that skips, sugar that drops, a seizure, an asthma attack, a pregnancy that suddenly needs a hospital. Many of them live alone, or with a family that is out at work all day. When something happens, the first few minutes decide everything, and in those minutes the people coming to help usually have no idea what is wrong.

So we built Medical Priority in ORBII.

What Medical Priority does

You tell ORBII about your health conditions once, and how serious each one is. If any condition is serious, your SOS becomes a medical priority:

• It goes out in 3 seconds, not 5. You can still cancel a false alarm, but in a cardiac emergency two seconds matter.
• Helpers are called from further away, straight away. A normal SOS starts with the nearest 2 km and widens if needed. A medical priority SOS alerts verified helpers within 5 km immediately, and widens to 8 km if nobody is on the way.
• Helpers hear what is wrong, out loud. The helper’s phone announces it over the alarm, in Hindi and then English: “Attention. Medical emergency. This person has a heart condition. Please reach fast, and call 108 for an ambulance.” They know what they are walking into before they arrive.
• Your family sees your health card. Your circle gets a “medical priority” alert, plus your conditions, blood group, allergies, medicines and your doctor’s number, so they can tell the ambulance crew exactly what they need to know.
• 108 is one tap away. A big red “Call 108 (Ambulance)” button appears on your screen and on your family’s, above “Call 112”.

It is for every serious condition, not only heart patients

ORBII lets you choose from the conditions that most often turn into emergencies, and add any other condition yourself:

• Heart disease, including a past heart attack, angina, arrhythmia or a pacemaker
• Stroke risk, including a past stroke or TIA
• Epilepsy and seizures
• Asthma and breathing problems, including COPD
• Diabetes, for dangerous low or high sugar
• Severe allergies, including anaphylaxis risk
• Pregnancy, especially in the later months
• Blood pressure problems, high or low
• Anything else, typed in your own words: kidney disease, dementia, a recent surgery, a bleeding disorder, sickle cell disease

For each one you choose Mild, Moderate or Serious. Mild and moderate conditions are still shown to the people helping you. Only serious ones change how your SOS is sent.

Who it is for

• Elderly parents living alone, whose children live in another city.
• People with a heart condition, diabetes or epilepsy who travel, commute or work alone.
• Pregnant women, and the families worrying about them.
• People with severe allergies or asthma, for whom the first minutes decide everything.
• Caregivers, who cannot be in the same room all the time.
• Companies with field staff, warehouse teams and night shifts, where help can be far away.

Your health information stays private

Health information is some of the most sensitive data there is, so we built this carefully:

• Nobody sees it when there is no emergency. Not your circle and not helpers. It is stored against your account only, and only you can open it in the app.
• During a live SOS, only your own circle and the verified helpers coming to you see your health card.
• Other people nearby who can help are told only the condition, for example “heart condition”, never your medicines or your doctor.
• It is never sold, and never shown to an employer.
• Delete removes it completely, in one tap, from Profile.

How to set it up

1. Open ORBII. When you update, ORBII asks once: “Do you have any health condition?”
2. Tap your conditions and choose how serious each one is. If you have none, tap “I have no medical conditions”.
3. Optional: add your blood group, allergies, medicines and your doctor’s number in Profile > Health info.
4. Make sure your family is in your circle, so they get your SOS and your health card.

That is it. If a condition is serious, the Health info screen shows “Medical priority: on”.

The honest part

ORBII is not an ambulance and it is not a medical device. It does not diagnose anything. What it does is make sure the people who can reach you fastest are told at once, know what is wrong, and have 108 one tap away. In any medical emergency, call 108 for an ambulance, or 112, and ORBII puts both right on your screen.

Verified helpers are live in Delhi-NCR first and growing city by city. Your circle, the health card, the 3 second countdown and the 108 button work everywhere in India.

Medical Priority is rolling out in ORBII’s next update, free for everyone.

The man at our pitch said he had no one who could help him. Nobody should feel that way. Now, the people closest to him will know, and they will know what to do.

Get ORBII on Google Play