The former VP of corporate communications for Triad Healthcare, who was laid off late last year, has developed an iPhone application to quickly cull emergency contacts not normally called on in everyday use.

Hillary Davis, who ran her own PR shop for 16 years in France and now lives in New Hampshire, said she got the idea for the $0.99 application, called MyTown, when she had not heard from her elderly mother in three days and couldn't remember a neighbor's name or number.

She did a Q&A for today's edition of the Concord Monitor:
Why did you create My Town Contacts? It's sort of a two-pronged story. One is that I'm a Mac addict. I love the Mac computers. I love my iPhone. But I also had a need - I was on business three states away, my mom's older, and I hadn't heard from her in three days and I needed to check in.

So what did you do? I just thought, "Oh my god, I can't get a hold of my mother." I couldn't remember how one of her neighbors spelled her name, and the other neighbor was unlisted. (My mom) turned out to be fine . . . but I thought, "Wow, I really need an app for that."

More at concordmonitor.com.