Company Name: Vitalboards
Headquarters: O’Fallon, Missouri
Website: http://www.vitalboards.com/
Vitalboards’® mission is to bring its lifesaving program to every community within the continental United States.
The product features an 8 ½ x 11-inch magnetic memo board with a pen and clip that mounts to a refrigerator door. The reverse side includes an area for each homeowner to list their vital health information and aims to be easily accessible to EMS responding to in-home emergencies.
It also includes a free Vital ICE app that can be custom-branded for responders. Departments can send out push-notifications to users and connect users to local safety campaigns and other community information.
Where did your company name originate from?
We decided on the name based on its simplicity and literal meaning. ‘Vital’ is defined as “absolutely necessary or important; essential,” and ‘boards’ is indicative of the memo board component of our program, which features an area on the reverse side for homeowners to list their vital health information.
What was the inspiration behind starting your company?
Not many people are conscious of ‘what if’ emergency scenarios involving themselves or a loved one; most of us avoid thinking about it. We thought if we could provide EMS and other first responders with patient-provided medical information on the backbone of products that people actually can use, making everything easily accessible in an emergency situation, we would have something truly unique.
Why do you believe your products are essential to the EMS community?
We’ve received numerous reports from EMS stating that historically, they have struggled with locating patient medical information while on emergency house calls. According to those surveyed, existing medical information programs fail in this area due to the fact that they can seldom locate the information card, likely because homeowners can’t utilize them for any other purpose so they don’t keep them somewhere where they’re easy to find. And quite frankly, they are often poorly designed and aren’t the nicest things to post on the refrigerator door.
To further complicate the issue, many people are purchasing stainless steel refrigerators today, which don’t accept magnets often used for mounting vital information cards. Therefore, most homeowners relegate them to a drawer somewhere, where it does neither the patient nor the responding EMTs any good.
Vitalboards® not only provides an aesthetically-pleasing, lifesaving product that can adhere to stainless steel refrigerators, it also features a free Vital ICE app for iOS and Android which will be unveiled in November 2014. The app is an extension of the Vitalboard® while the homeowner is outside of the house, and contains information that emergency personnel need. The app can be custom branded for EMS agencies and fire departments, and features a back office site where they can send out push notifications to Vital ICE users, making the app a powerful, much-needed emergency communication tool.
What has been the biggest challenge your company has faced?
As a startup of less than two years, there have been obvious challenges that come with a smaller company, such as identifying the key customer base, getting our marketing/branding in place, and establishing distribution channels. The biggest challenge of all has been identifying the key customer base. Given the fact that Vitalboards® can be utilized by nearly any business or organization as an effective, lifesaving community outreach program, it was difficult to focus on one single customer base.
What makes your company unique?
Vitalboards® is not just a one-trick pony. We not only feature a lifesaving memo board product that homeowners love and actually use, but also a lifesaving mobile app that doubles as an emergency communication platform for participating EMS and fire departments.
What do your customers like best about you and your products?
Homeowners love our memo board product because it’s a useful, free, everyday communication tool for family members. EMS and first responders like the product because they can see the homeowner’s vital information on the back of the board, in a location they can easily find. The upcoming release of Vital ICE is garnering nationwide attention already, mostly due to its emergency push-notification feature.
What is the most rewarding part of serving the first responder community?
We are proud to be a part of saving lives. We have already received numerous accounts of our program in action, and how it also goes on to bring much-needed free PR to local EMS and fire departments across the country. Having a program that represents a solution to a nationwide challenge is truly rewarding.
Do you support any charitable organizations within public safety?
Yes, our charity of choice is the National Fallen Firefighters Association, which has received 5 percent off all proceeds for each order since our inception. We are also open to diverting these funds to a more local cause within each community, based on the department’s wishes.
Is there any fun fact or trivia that you’d like to share with our users about you or your company?
We love our Cardinals baseball here in St. Louis!
What’s next for your company? Any upcoming new projects or initiatives?
The Vital ICE app (currently in beta testing) will be unveiled in the upcoming 2014 EMS World Expo in Nashville, where we are a finalist in the nomination for the Innovation Award. Feel free to stop by our booth for a quick demo and see how it could benefit your department. Version two of Vital ICE is already in design for 2015, and will further redefine what an ‘In Case of Emergency’ app can do.
