Core Features Guide

Medication Tracking

Adding Your First Medication

1. Tap the Health tab
2. Tap Medications
3. Tap the + button
4. Enter medication details (name, dosage, unit, form, frequency)
5. Set reminder times for each dose
6. Tap Save

Logging a Dose

When a reminder appears, tap the notification or go to Health → Medications and tap "Took It" (Care Mode) or "Log Dose" (Wellness Mode).

If You Miss a Dose

1. Mark the dose as Skipped
2. Select a reason (optional): Forgot, Side effects, Ran out of medication, Doctor advised to skip, Other
3. The missed dose is logged for your records

Best Practices

• Add ALL current medications, including over-the-counter
• Include vitamins and supplements
• Update myCARI when prescriptions change

Vitals Tracking

Supported Vitals

Two Ways to Track Vitals

How Data Flows (Automatic)

myCARI does NOT connect directly to Bluetooth devices. Instead, your device's companion app sends data to Apple Health, and myCARI reads from Apple Health. This means you need to:

1. Set up your device with its manufacturer's app
2. Connect that app to Apple Health
3. Grant myCARI permission to read from Apple Health

Connecting Health Devices

Manual Logging

For devices without Apple Health integration, or for occasional readings:

1. Tap the Health tab
2. Tap Vitals
3. Select the vital type (Blood Pressure, Glucose, etc.)
4. Tap Add Reading or the + button
5. Enter your reading and timestamp
6. Tap Save

Troubleshooting Device Sync

Understanding Your Vitals Charts

Customizing Your Health Summary

The Health Summary card on your Health screen displays your two most important vitals at a glance. You can customize which vitals appear.

1. Go to the Health tab
2. Find the Health Summary card at the top
3. Tap the slider icon next to the chevron
4. Select your Primary Vital and Secondary Vital
5. Tap Done

For Care Team Members: When you view a patient's health data, the Health Summary shows the vitals they have chosen to display — not your own preferences. Care team members cannot change which vitals appear in a patient's Health Summary.

Connecting Medical Records (FHIR)

What is FHIR?

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) lets you securely import your medical records from hospitals and clinics into myCARI.

Supported Healthcare Systems

myCARI supports nationwide provider search with 500+ healthcare organizations, primarily through Epic MyChart — used by 250+ million patients at hospitals, health systems, and clinics across the US.

Our provider database includes major health systems like UCLA Health, Kaiser Permanente, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Cedars-Sinai, and hundreds more.

How to Find and Connect Your Provider

1. Tap the Health tab
2. Scroll to Medical Records
3. Tap Connect Provider or Add Provider
4. Search for your provider by name (results appear as you type, minimum 2 characters)
5. Look for the verified badge (✓) indicating confirmed connection
6. Tap your provider, review connection information, and tap Connect
7. Log into your MyChart portal with your MyChart username and password
8. Authorize myCARI to access your records
9. Wait for initial sync (may take several minutes)

Search Tips

• Search by health system name: "UCLA Health", "Kaiser", "Cleveland Clinic"
• Search by hospital name: "Northwestern Memorial", "Mount Sinai"
• Try variations: If "Endeavor Health" doesn't appear, try "NorthShore" (former name)
• Check the location: Results show city and state to help identify the right provider

Can't Find Your Provider?

If your healthcare provider doesn't appear in search results, tap "Request [Your Search Term]" to submit a request. We're continuously expanding our provider network based on user requests.

What Data Syncs

• Current medications from your provider
• Diagnoses and conditions
• Lab results (blood work, tests)
• Immunization records
• Allergy information
• Past procedures and visits

AI Health Coach

The AI Health Coach analyzes your health data and provides daily summaries, personalized health tips, medication adherence feedback, and trend analysis.

Nutrition vs Goals

The daily AI Health Coach report includes a Nutrition vs Goals card that compares yesterday's actual food intake against your personal nutrition goals.

What it shows:

• Progress bars for six tracked nutrients: Calories, Protein, Carbs, Fat, Fiber, and Water
• Each row displays your actual intake, your goal, and a percentage
• A summary pill showing how many of the 6 goals you met (within 90–110% of target)

Color coding:

• Green — Goal met (90–110% of target)
• Orange — Close (70–89%)
• Red — Needs work (below 70%)
• Blue — Over target (above 110%, informational)

To get the most out of this card, set your nutrition goals in the AI Health Coach (tap the target icon), log your meals throughout the day, and check the next day's report.

When You'll Receive Insights

• Morning brief — 7:00 AM (preview of the day)
• Evening summary — 8:00 PM (daily wrap-up)
• Alert notifications — When something needs attention

Meal Analysis

Take a photo of your meal to get estimated calories, macronutrient breakdown, portion size suggestions, and dietary recommendations.

How to log a meal:

1. Tap the Wellness tab
2. Tap Meals or the + button
3. Take a photo of your food
4. AI will analyze and estimate nutrition
5. Adjust portions if needed
6. Tap Save

AI Sources & Citations

AI health insights are based on general wellness guidance from published sources including:

• World Health Organization (WHO)
• American Heart Association (AHA)
• USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Meal nutrition estimates reference the USDA FoodData Central database (fdc.nal.usda.gov).

Every screen that shows AI-generated content includes a citation footer with a “View sources” link. AI insights are for informational purposes only and are not medical advice. For full details, see our Sources & Citations page.

Appointments

Adding Appointments

1. Tap the Health tab
2. Tap Appointments
3. Tap the + button
4. Enter appointment details: Title, Type, Date & Time, Duration, Provider, Location
5. Optionally enable Reminder
6. Tap Save

Appointment Types

Therapy Appointments

For therapy appointments, myCARI provides additional tracking:

• Therapy Type — Required field for CMS compliance (Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, etc.)
• Session Tracking — Track "Session 3 of 12" for ongoing treatment plans
• Provider Credentials — Record therapist credentials (PT, DPT, OTR, etc.)

Recurring Appointments

myCARI supports recurring appointments for weekly therapy sessions, monthly check-ins, or regular lab work.

• Creates a series of sessions based on a pattern (e.g., "Every Monday for 12 weeks")
• Each session is displayed individually and shows its position (e.g., "Session 3 of 12")
• Follows iCal standards (used by Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, etc.)

Editing Recurring Appointments

When you tap Edit on a recurring appointment, you'll see two options:

Viewing Appointments (For Care Team Members)

With appropriate permissions, care team members can view, edit, cancel, and add appointments on behalf of the patient. All changes are logged with your name for HIPAA audit compliance.

Wellness Features

Wellness View Overview

The Wellness tab provides a comprehensive view of your fitness and lifestyle data, including:

Customizing Your Wellness Cards

You can show or hide any card to personalize your experience:

1. Go to the Wellness tab
2. Tap the gear icon in the top toolbar
3. Scroll to Customize Cards
4. Toggle ON/OFF the cards you want to show or hide
5. Changes are saved automatically

Hydration Tracking

The Hydration card shows your daily water intake progress with a circular progress gauge.

To log water intake:

1. Tap the Hydration card in Wellness view
2. Use quick-add buttons (8oz, 12oz, 16oz, 32oz)
3. Or tap Custom to enter a specific amount

To change your daily hydration goal: tap the gear icon in Wellness settings → Daily Hydration Goal → enter your target → Save.

Stress Level Tracking

The Stress Level card provides insight into your body's stress response by analyzing Apple Watch data and sleep patterns. myCARI calculates your stress score (0–100) using three key indicators:

• Heart Rate Variability (HRV) — Lower HRV often indicates higher stress
• Resting Heart Rate — Elevated resting HR can signal stress
• Sleep Efficiency — Poor sleep affects stress resilience

Note: Apple Watch is required for HRV and resting heart rate data. The Stress Level feature provides wellness insights and is not a medical diagnostic tool.

Safety Features

Emergency SOS

To trigger Emergency SOS:

1. Press and hold the SOS button for 3 seconds
2. A countdown will appear
3. Release to send alert OR keep holding to cancel
4. Your care team members will be notified (NOT emergency services)

Emergency Contacts

Emergency contacts must be members of your care team. They must have myCARI installed and notification permissions enabled.

Setting Up Emergency Contacts:

1. Go to Safety tab (or Dashboard in Care Mode)
2. Tap Emergency Contacts
3. Tap the + button to add a contact
4. Select a care team member from the list
5. Optionally toggle "Set as Primary Contact"
6. Tap Add Emergency Contact

Primary Emergency Contact: One contact should be designated as primary (indicated with a star icon). To change your primary contact, swipe right on any contact and tap "Set Primary".

Tip: You can designate someone as an emergency contact during the invitation process by toggling "Add as Emergency Contact" before sending.

Testing Your Emergency Contacts

Before relying on SOS, verify your emergency contacts can receive alerts:

1. Check their status in Safety → Emergency Contacts (look for the blue "Care Team Member" indicator)
2. Have each contact verify: myCARI installed, notification permissions on, app opened recently, DND doesn't block myCARI
3. Consider a test (with their knowledge): trigger SOS, cancel immediately within 3 seconds, ask if they received a notification

Note: There is no "test alert" feature. Coordinate with your emergency contacts before testing.

Fall Detection (Apple Watch)

Important: Fall detection is NOT automatic. You must manually start Safety Monitoring on your Apple Watch each time you want protection.

How to Start Fall Detection:

1. Open the myCARI app on your Apple Watch
2. Tap Start Safety Monitoring
3. The myCARI logo appears on your watch face indicating protection is active
4. Fall detection is now active continuously in the background

When a Fall is Detected:

1. Both your Watch and iPhone show an alert with a countdown
2. Tap I'm OK to cancel the alert (on either device)
3. Tap Get Help to immediately notify emergency contacts
4. If no response within the countdown, emergency contacts are automatically alerted with your location

Responding from iPhone: Long-press or swipe down on the notification to reveal action buttons. Tap I'm OK to cancel without opening the app.

Note: This is separate from Apple's built-in fall detection. myCARI's fall detection works alongside Apple's and provides additional alerting to your emergency contacts through the myCARI app.

Gait Analysis

In addition to fall detection, myCARI offers Gait Analysis which tracks your walking patterns over time using Apple Health data. This helps identify gradual changes in mobility that may indicate increased fall risk. Find this in Safety → Gait Trends.

Location Sharing

Optional feature that shares your location with care team members.

1. Go to Safety → Location Sharing
2. Toggle ON
3. Choose who can see your location
4. Set schedule (always, or during specific hours)

Watch Emergency SOS

From the myCARI Watch app, you can also trigger an emergency SOS directly from your wrist by tapping the SOS button and holding for 3 seconds.

Hospital Mode (Medical Records Sync)

When you or a loved one is hospitalized, Hospital Mode increases the frequency of medical record syncing so your care team can stay informed about new lab results, progress notes, and other clinical updates.

How to Enable Hospital Mode:

Option 1: "I'm Being Admitted" Quick Action

1. Go to Safety tab (or Dashboard)
2. Tap "I'm Being Admitted"
3. Optionally enter the hospital name and reason
4. Tap "Notify Care Team"

Option 2: Any care team member can enable it from the patient's profile → Settings → Hospital Mode → Toggle ON.

Expiry: Hospital Mode automatically disables after 7 days. All care team members receive a warning at Day 5, and can extend by 7 or 14 days.

Note: Hospital Mode only affects medical record sync (FHIR/MyChart data). You must have at least one healthcare provider connected for Hospital Mode to be useful.