ChARM demos first online app for autism treatment


26 May 2009

Zoho is perhaps best known for its range of free online productivity and collaborative tools – Zoho Office – which competes with Google Docs, but most recently the company has donated its development platform and resources to the treatment of autism with the newly launched ChARMTracker.

What ChARMTracker does is provide an online tool – the first of its kind – for parents of children with autistic spectrum disorders (AUD), enabling them to gather and track information on treatments, and dietary and health conditions.

“Autism is a complex, multi-factorial problem. There is an urgent need to gather, systematise and learn from all the anecdotal information about treatments, interventions and outcomes to accelerate the process of working towards a standard of care for autism,” said Pramila Srinivasan, CEO and Founder of MedicalMine (the maker of ChARM).

“For a decade, parents have been waiting for technology to deliver on the promise of autism treatment data management.

“ChARM is the first software system that enables them to do that, despite many previous efforts led by groups all over the country. ChARM’s Silicon Valley connections have made all the difference,” he added.

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, the company that has provided the development platofom and resources for ChARM, said that technology is a crucial piece to help solve the puzzle of autism.

“Without a systematic collection of data about these children, from genomics to nutrition to environmental triggers, we will not find the answers to the unanswered questions about causation and prevention.

“ChARM not only helps parents to manage treatment now, but is positioned to help the entire community, physicians and researchers finally understand what we can do to treat our children successfully, as well as to prevent new cases. That’s never been possible before,” he explained.

By Marie Boran