Inner Reach was founded in 1996 by Constance Y. Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., RN, and David F. Leon Guerrero. Dr. Fitzpatrick, a health psychologist and registered nurse, is the Inner Reach Chief Executive Officer, Health Director, and chairman of the board. She is the innovator of the collection of Inner Reach health psychology, nursing, and psychiatric protocols and the Health Information Gathering System - HiGS. Author of numerous articles, Dr. Fitzpatrick is the co-author with Youcheng Zhang, MD, Ph.D., (PR China) of various research papers on apoptosis, and specific herbs' properties, particularly for their effects on cancers.

David F. LeonGuerrero was originally the Inner Reach vice president of corporate development and a director of the board. He died on December 17, 1999 when struck down on the sidewalk by a vehicle. As a young man, Mr. Leon Guerrero studied in the priesthood to become a Jesuit, but left after a couple years to pursue other callings. Refusing any telephone calls for the first hour of each dawn, that Jesuit training and discipline compelled him to start every day with his breviary and meditation to make a difference in the world, ending with his favorite and most-appropriate-for-him prayer, "Slow me down Lord." A computer professional with specialization in data warehousing, David LeonGuerrero developed one of the first totally integrated PCs called the Dasyn 101 using the Intel 4004. He was the Chief Operating Officer for Novell Data Systems a computer manufacturer and maker of disk operating systems which ultimately became Novell Inc., ^[1] founded and driven by his colleague and friend, Raymond John "Ray" Noorda (past CEO and President for Novell [1983-1995]). ^{[2] [3]} Additionally, Mr. LeonGuerrero was a technical analyst for Jet Propulsion Laboratory space power systems used in the Surveyor, ^[4] Skylab ^[5] and Voyager^[6]. Until December of 1999, he was the Board Chairman of Healion, a medical oriented telemetry company, assisting with long range and remote area medical communications and diagnostics. Mr. LeonGuerrero had his vision for Inner Reach, wanting to see it succeed in many ways, including telecommunications and its data warehousing future in health around the world.

Prior to the popularity of the Internet, the company originally did not have a technology system and spent its time developing a wide range of protocols in health psychology and nursing assessment areas with emphasis primarily on mental health, highlighting anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, alcoholism and alcoholic family systems, eating disorders, and dementias. Eventually when the Internet started to get recognition as a viable medium to reach individuals, particularly health seekers, they elected to create an interactive preventive care technology which has been further refined to include subjective testing in all areas of health - physical, environmental, sociological, occupational, and nutritional. This led to the company's focusing on interactive electronic testing and reporting results to create its personal comprehensive history - for individuals to collect and have their Personal Health History (PHH).

First conceptualized in 1993, with its technology in infantile stages of development in 1996, it was not until the Internet started to include more health information that Inner Reach actually was able to become a business. Inner Reach received its first funding for research and development from a technology investor in October of 1999 and the second in 2001. Inner Reach invested in itself while its team provided strategies and goodwill to help bring HiGS to the marketplace. Incorporated in June of 1998, and ready for the marketplace by 2005, the company's struggle was due to the usual need for infusion of funds, the complexity of sophistication and volume of protocols and intellectual property developed, but also in part from the need for mandated and incentivized usage of HiGS as a way for the public to participate in their own health preservation. Currently, Inner Reach is actively seeking partners with companies that are trying to differentiate themselves from others such as by the bundling of certain HiGS assessments with imaging and blood testing.

Together with Dr Fitzpatrick, David LeonGuerrero named the company 'Inner Reach' due to the company's self-introspective protocols and system to symbolically reach within oneself to learn more.

The HiGS concept was developed in part because studies show taking a careful history and having comprehensive histories are more important than a physical exam in a doctor office to detect risk, diagnose disease, and prevent disease and trouble. ^{[7] [8]} Today's health history is mostly collected through a time consuming and costly physician-patient interview, which due to time constraints and other reasons, often only attends to the day's needs of "Why are you here?" This results in histories tending to be brief and not comprehensive.

Inner Reach 'considered' that health histories collected mostly verbally during physician-patient interview have no central place where individuals can find them and what does exist, most likely does not contain the full story of a person's important health information. The product, HiGS, was designed to make anyone's health history comprehensive, all in one place, interactive, accessible, and retrievable.

The concept is that HiGS user's control their own health history information to place themselves in a more central role of self-care and healthcare. Controlled only by the user, the HiGS users can print out their results report called a Personal Health History (PHH) and give it, fax it, or electronically send it to a family member, physician, or other healthcare professionals as desired.

The ultimate goals of having such information are to be prepared for nearly anything, identify risks and areas of potential concern, and to more effectively and quickly communicate needs to healthcare professionals and family members. By having a comprehensive health history, a person can identify potential areas of risk and know what is needed for self-care and healthcare to make changes for health.