OhanaLink Baby App Launch
Receives Funding for New Technology That Connects Patients with Families During the Pandemic.
OhanaLink Technologies (OLT), a new western Pennsylvania-based tech company recently announced their official entrance into the healthcare technology market offering a suite of innovative solutions designed to directly connect families, patients, physicians and hospitals while experiencing a healthcare event or episode and provides unique tools to enhance patient and family support during the pandemic.
OhanaLink Technologies was created in 2017, debuted beta products in 2019, and launched its first mobile app for healthcare consumers in June 2020, OhanaLink Baby. The development company, headquartered in Hermitage, PA, was the brainchild of CEO and Founder, Kara Wasser, a 39-year old banking executive turned woman entrepreneur from Western Pennsylvania, who after a personal experience with disparate communications while waiting for her sister to deliver a baby at a hospital in Erie, knew there had to be a better way to create a more positive experience. Stated Wasser, “We are at our most vulnerable when we are experiencing a healthcare event. As a patient or a family member of a patient, we have come to expect ‘gaps’ in communication whether it’s related to diagnosis, scheduling, testing, etc.” She explained, “The vision for OLT was to solve a problem - which is the need to bridge the gaps in healthcare communication needs between patients, families and providers. This is especially critical with the restrictions now in place on visitation and support during hospital stays, visits, or services. We believe OLT offers unique solutions to families to enable that personal “touch” that has been taken away from many of us due to COVID-19.”
Why OhanaLink? Ohana is the Hawaiian term meaning family. Family is at the root of the concept behind OLT. Explained Wasser, “We know that our world can change in a moment’s notice, but one thing that remains constant and time-tested and is truly at the very core of our universe, is family or Ohana. It’s our family, our friends and those in our trusted network - it’s what keeps us connected.”
Launch of New Mobile App for Parents-to-be
Wasser and her company executives at OLT, announce that their premier app, OhanaLink Baby (OLB), is now available to consumers. Geared toward the 25-39-year-olds, with OLB, expectant parents can connect with their closest circle of family and friends before, during, and after labor and delivery and allows them to share their pregnancy journey privately while creating a memorable experience for the patient and those in their trusted network. Now available for download on either the Apple Store or Google Play, the OLB app offers a private, secure tool - the only tool like it in the market - that allows users to preselect their own groups and deliver real time messages, updates, reports, images, and more all at the same time without the chaos of group emails, texts and chats offered by existing social media channels.
“We believe that our technology is especially relevant today as we all struggle to deal with social distancing and isolation. Our app offers parents-to-be a mobile platform to share their most important life-changing moments - the birth of their baby - privately and securely.” Concluded Wasser, “We are excited to bring to the market new communication channels that can be used by patients and their families, that offer what other social platforms can’t, when we all need it most.”
OhanaLink Technologies Receives Funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners/CNP
In June, OhanaLink Technologies was one of seventeen tech companies in central and northern PA to receive funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners/CNP that will allow them to further develop and commercialize new, innovative solutions.
“When our team first met Kara, in 2017, we knew there was something special about her entrepreneurial drive and her vision for bringing this innovative product to market,” said Brian Slawin of the Ben Franklin Technology PArtners. “What my colleagues and I discovered is that Kara was able to put to use all of the mentoring we provided, was committed to bringing high paying technology jobs to Northwestern PA, and proactively adjusted to whatever situation or challenges she came across. Those are just some of the reasons why we invested – twice – in OhanaLink Technologies.”
Ben Franklin, which has been investing in tech startups and small manufacturers for nearly 40 years, recently received additional funding support of $1 million from the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) to invest in its portfolio clients that have been adversely affected by COVID-19.
About Ben Franklin Technology Partners/CNP
The largest early-stage investor in our region, Ben Franklin Technology Partners/CNP is an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority. The program provides investment capital, business support services, and TechCelerator startup boot camps to emerging tech-entrepreneurs and small manufacturers for the purpose of creating high-paying jobs and business growth opportunities in the Commonwealth. www.cnp.benfranklin.org.
About OhanaLink Technologies
In the coming months, OLT plans to bring additional products directly to healthcare consumers and will include a general-purpose mobile waiting room that suits healthcare events including short term illness, surgeries, chronic illness, childhood illnesses, and inpatient care.
OhanaLink Technologies offers a unique menu of healthcare products that are designed to offer secure social communication channels for all generations and are designed to enhance the patient experience by providing private, easy-to-use apps that directly connect their “ohana,” or community of loved ones. For more information, visit www.ohanalink.tech or email info@ohanalink.tech or call 844-394-4398.
All media Inquiries can be directed to:
Debbie Anderson
844-394-4398
