austinprete

I have checked them out and am planning on using them for the technical and physical requirements involved with HIPAA. But thanks for the link, would have been extremely useful to me had I not found them a week or so ago in a jobs post on HN haha. Also I am going to be using a start-up called Accountable that helps with the administrative requirements of HIPAA. The problem is just that neither of those services is cheap (TrueVault is cheaper at first than Accountable) once you actually release a public website. I don't expect them to be considering that they save a lot of time and money compared to becoming HIPAA compliant on your own. But as a 17 year old I just don't have a lot of money, which is why crowdfunding will be necessary most likely.

Yeah, I asked kinda planning to do it either way, unless there was a really strong negative reaction, which might have talked me out of it. I think it will be worth it in a lot of ways, even if it never succeeds.

Thank you for your input! Having put some thought into it, I agree. I'm still in high school, and even though I have a job, I'd say overall I probably have a lot more time now than I will in two years. This might be the best chance I have to build this. And whether it succeeds or not, it'll at the very least be something I can throw on a Github repo and show potential employers in the future.

So I would say that it's a little of both. Profit wouldn't hurt, but primarily it's about the idea. Even if I never made a dime from it and just broke even, it would be worth it to me. And I say change the world, and I guess I mean it, but a small subset of the world. Perhaps 10% of the population of developed countries could gain benefit from my service. It's probably not even that good of an idea, however I have gotten quite a bit of support from communities of people with mood disorders that I've posted about it on.

The idea by the way, I'll write a more detailed explanation about it when I'm on my computer, is basically a mood tracker that your therapist/psychiatrist, and potentially friends and family, has access to if you as the user grant them that access. They can view your check-ins and mood graphs at any time from a professional/support account. It also automatically notifies your supports, mainly your mental health professional(s), but also family and friends if you're linked to them through a support account, through text and email if you mark yourself as having suicidal feelings, or feelings of harming somebody else.

Having dealt with depression I know for a fact that actively seeking help was not a concern of mine at my lowest points. However, something as passive as marking my mood as suicidal on an app or website, that's something I could do. And it would in turn have the same effect as if I texted my therapist about my feelings. Along with those features there's a bit more to it that separates it from other mood trackers but I'll only explain those if you're interested in hearing more.

So it's probably not the world changing idea I made it out to be, but I think it could help in the treatment of those facing mood disorders, by allowing their psychiatrist or therapist as well as family and friends to play an active role in monitoring their mood and helping at the lows or highs (for those with bipolar). Maybe it'll never catch on, but even if it got a few hundred users whose well-being was benefited by it, then it's worth it. If it helped saved even ONE life, then it's worth it.

Thank you for your willingness to help out. I am passionate about it, and I'll definitely send you an email and see if we can discuss strategy. I had never seen your company before. Definitely could be a great alternative to Kickstarter for me!

Thanks for the input! I think that's what I need to do. It's easy to get discouraged though when it feels like you don't have the resources to accomplish something you want to. That said, I think this is possible if I go about it in the right way.

Also, I'm aware that there are huge technical challenges involved in creating the service that I want to create. However, I'm fairly confident in my ability to overcome these if I put the time and effort in and am willing to learn. I already have an idea about how I'd go about creating what I want to. It's just that in figuring all of that out I've realized that it's going to be a very expensive endeavor. And if I do things wrong I could potentially break privacy laws, which could have very negative results.