The challenge

A serious blood condition arrives as dozens of pieces of information: fortnightly blood tests, letters from a specialist team, notes from the family doctor, a patient portal, Dad’s own spreadsheet, and whatever each person remembers from each appointment. No one had the whole picture. Dad’s wish was simple: he wanted the truth, and he wanted the whole family working from the same truth. Off-the-shelf health apps would have made the family change how they live to suit the software, so we built the software to fit them.

What we did

  • One private record of every result, letter, appointment, medicine and question, with where each came from and when
  • Read Dad’s existing spreadsheet every half hour, so he keeps working the way he always has
  • Lab reports emailed to the app are read the moment they land, and watch readings arrive on their own
  • Appointment recording with a written transcript, marked “not yet confirmed” until someone who was there agrees with it
  • A questions list for each appointment, ticked off in the room with the answers kept
  • An “If something is wrong” button that alerts the family, plus a printable page for paramedics
Dad's Care dashboard on a laptop and a phone

The dashboard, with made-up details.

Results

From first family conversation (11 Sept) to daily use (24 Sept) in about two weeks

Four family members working from one shared record

Appointment write-ups back in about a minute

More than 500 automated checks run every time the app changes

If something is wrong page on a laptop and a phone

The “If something is wrong” page, with made-up details.

How we handled the hard parts

  • Checked every supplier in writing before any real recording went out, and chose a transcription service that keeps audio in Australia and keeps nothing for training
  • The app shows results with their normal range and never draws a medical conclusion, at Dad’s request
  • Nothing is ever overwritten: every change keeps the old version, who changed it and why
  • Text is larger and darker than accessibility standards require, because two of the four users are in their seventies

Tested by real life

Using the app for real turned up four problems: a transcript that put one person’s words in another’s mouth, a recording that silently caught nothing, a phone call that cut the microphone, and a recording lost when a note was saved. Each was fixed the same day or the next, and each now has an automated test so it cannot quietly come back.

Blood results chart and meeting recording screen on a laptop and a phone

Results and meeting recording, with made-up details.

Thoughtful, secure, AI-assisted tools for situations where getting it wrong would hurt someone, built with the care we would want for our own family.

All names, results and personal details in the screenshots are invented to protect my dad’s privacy.

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