Media Reaction

NAME:   BodyTab

ARTICLE:   6th Nov, 2009

 

A cancer patient who has developed a unique family health records system has secured a deal with Ireland’s largest pharmacy group to distribute here product through their network of 72 shops.

When Ennis woman Mary FitzGerald, inventor of BodyTab, was diagnosed with cancer she was a busy working mum with two daughters.  Her treatment involved many hospital visits;  meeting new doctors and consultants; a lot of travel and a raft of treatments.  Keeping track of appointments and health information, along with trying to keep family life and work going was a nightmare.

As a result, Ms FitzGerald devised BodyTab over a period of two years during which se sought expert medical opinion on the development of the system.  It has been strongly endorsed by the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) as a useful tool in maintaining good health.

BodyTab is designed so that each person can carry their own file on a memory key, while the health records of up to 12 people can be stored on each copy of the system.

According to Ms FitzGerald:  “As I went from doctor to doctor and specialist to specialist I was invariably asked the same questions about family history, immunisations, allergies and medications.  I found this import information difficult to remember during my illness.  However, it is essential in building up a ‘picture’ for my care-givers.  It is very important that you have a ‘family tree’ of your true medical history.  I figured that there must be a better way and so I set about developing a system that anyone could use”.

“ I have a very positive attitude to life and I believe that every cloud has a silver lining.  Developing BodyTab has been hard work but very rewarding.  This endorsement from Unicare shows that all the effort was worthwhile.  Hopefully other patients will benefit from my experience”

Alan Galvin, co-developer of BodyTab, said they believed it is of major value because if people are better informed about their health they will have better outcomes.  The partnershipe with Unicare would bring our system to a much wider section of the community………