App offers fertility guidance based on vital stats

A company in Boulder is poised to launch a for-pay version of a smartphone application that helps women figure out which days of the month that they’re most fertile.

A free version of the fertility charting application from Kindara Inc. has been downloaded by 75,000 people.

About 75 percent of the app’s users are trying to get pregnant, while 25 percent of the users want to remain babyless, said Kati Bicknell, who launched the app in May 2012 with her husband, Will Sacks.

The couple said when women input information on their body temperature, the time period of their monthly cycle and “custom” data about diet, exercise and sleep, among other things, the application’s fertility chart is as effective as birth control pills in helping to prevent pregnancy.

As proof, the couple has been using the app (which is based on the sympto-thermal method of fertility charting) for three years with great success, Sacks said.

Conversely, the application shows users when they’re at their most fertile, meaning it can help women who want to get pregnant.

Bicknell became interested in fertility several years ago because her mother has a health history that included a 10-year period of fertility issues. After reading the book “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” by Toni Weschler, Bicknell started looking for a smartphone application she could use to chart her own menstrual cycles.

When Bicknell didn’t find exactly what she was looking for in a phone app, Sacks suggested the couple build the tool.

“I want other women … to know this method exists and is successful and useful,” Bicknell said. “I’m on a mission to help women to understand that they don’t have to take the pill if they don’t want to.”

The company received about $150,000 in initial funding from friends and family and other sources. Kindara later received an undisclosed amount from SOS Ventures in Ireland in October, as well as from some local angel investors in Boulder.

Bicknell and Sacks were invited to participate in the business incubator called Haxlr8r in Shenzhen, China, which is sponsored by SOS Ventures. As a result of that experience, the couple may create its own hardware device in the future, Sacks said.

As for revenue — the new, paid support model will offer fertility counseling and other features to members who pay a fee, which has not bee decided, Sacks said. It will be offered as an upgrade to the basic phone application, which will still be available for free.

“We’re giving women a whole new window into what is happening with their bodies. Women don’t want to put chemicals in their bodies if they don’t have to,” Sacks said. “I see what we’re doing as the evolution of fertility and medicine and personal health.”

The company has been featured in stories in The New York Times, Forbes and Women 2.0.

Kindara has four employees along with contract workers and interns. Check it out at www.kindara.com.

Boulder Heart adds staff

The Boulder Heart cardiology practice is up to 15 members working at the new Anderson Medical Center at the Boulder Community Hospital Foothills campus, 4743 Arapahoe Ave.

Drs. Jamie Doucet and Molly Ware and two other staff members came over to the Boulder Community Hospital-based practice from Colorado Cardiovascular Center, which closed its office on Center Green Drive.

The Colorado Cardiovascular doctors aren’t the only ones to join the hospital in recent months.

Spruce Street Internal Medicine in Boulder also joined the Boulder Community Hospital network. The practice remains open at 2575 Spruce St. in Boulder.

Pamela Stone, a gynecologic oncologist, joined the hospital’s network late last year, while continuing to operate from her own independent office. She has broad expertise in minimally invasive surgery techniques, including how to use the daVinci Surgical System for robotic-assisted surgery.

Top worker’s comp injury

Orthopedic, and back and neck injuries are the most common worker compensation issues in the Boulder area, according to Peter Mars, the staff physician at WorkWell LLC’s office in Boulder.

WorkWell has treated more than 300 people at the office since it opened in June. Longmont-based WorkWell also has clinics in Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont and Loveland.

Factoid of the day: WorkWell’s office at 3434 47th St. in Boulder is in a building built at the location of the former Peggy’s Hi-Lo country-western bar. Look for it on the east side of the road the next time you’re on the Diagonal overpass headed into or out of Boulder.

Contact Beth Potter at 303-440-1944 or bpotter@bcbr.com.

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