Background
Project Summary
This invention provides a software tool, empowering patients to monitor symptoms and treatments and improving communications between patients and health care providers, toward the goal of integrated personal care.
The Problem
“By the time I get into the office I have forgotten most of the things I wanted to tell my doctor.”
- Pat Kramer, client with idiopathic Portal Vein Thrombosis
Quality communication between patient and health care providers are essential to the effective diagnosis and treatment.
Because of time constraints in a visit with a provider and lack of tools to record and communicate symptoms, patients often have little time to recount and express all that has been happening since their last visit or since the onset of their symptoms. Another common problem is that providers sometimes set interventions and recommend health related behavior changes that patients found difficult to follow.
A few existing options to help track a patient’s symptoms do not provide the security and liability requirements for the health care providers and hospitals and thus have not been used to integrate patient data into the medical record management system.
Patients and health care providers need a comprehensive tool to assist the patients becoming active participants in their own health while inviting the expertise of their healthcare providers to guide their care.
The Solution
The Wellness Liaison system is designed for the patients to monitor symptoms and treatment and for the health care providers to use and access the information in a controlled manner in order to help the provider and patient decide/discuss together what would be important to track given treatment goals, potential side effects, and how to monitor responses over time.
Client’s often have a portable electronic device with them in their appointments and throughout the day. This system takes advantage of this trend, interacting with patients about when to take medications and engage in health related activities, and also when to chart any appropriate symptoms or behaviors, customized to that client.
The Wellness Liaison can be made compatible with multiple electronic health record systems and would allow for providers to have access to what a patient is experiencing over time between appointments. The system would allow for an easy but secure and controlled download of tracked information (symptoms, side effects, and behaviors) into the electronic health record in graph form for monitoring.
The system provides liability management for data transfer between the patients and the medical record database used by the health care providers and hospitals.
The system is versatile and could be used by different types of provider, from counseling to gastroenterology to physical therapy. A provider would download relevant information they feel would be useful in monitoring treatment, behavior change, etc. The system is designed to help empower clients to actively manage their health while inviting the expertise of the clinician to monitor and advise.
“My clients have a long history of symptoms and behaviors I’ll never see in my office. I have to make sure I am giving the right diagnosis and prescribing the right medications.”
- Tara Shanti Kane, Nurse Practitioner in Psychiatry
Development Need
The initial web/app module will be built based on the needs of a selected patient population to help them monitor symptoms and integrate records into the medical database in a controlled format in order to benefit communications between patients and providers. The initial module will be built and demonstrated at Cornell University’s student health center to demonstrate effectiveness and gather feedback. Please help us to raise the fund so that we can begin this process that will greatly enhance patients’ ability to manage and improve their (could be your) own physical and mental health. Thank you so much for your support!