How Donna Went From "Surviving to Thriving" with HealthBook+
"When I go to a specialist, and I have PaiGE help me compile my medical history, I feel in control"
During six years of hospital stays and specialist visits, Donna had a lot of information to keep track of. Each member of her care team needed to know what was happening with the rest of her care, and she was often the one keeping everyone up to date. Then HealthBook+ helped bring her complete medical history together and coordinate her care.
"I had a lot of hospitalizations, a lot of different care from a lot of different specialists," Donna says. "And the biggest challenge was coordinating all of that and keeping track of all of that, and keeping each physician informed of what was going on."
Managing several chronic conditions also meant following complex instructions and knowing which physician to see next. Donna wanted help understanding how it all fit together.
"Everybody is a specialist in their own area of expertise," she says. "But they don't talk together, and they don't treat you as a whole. And that's what I needed. I needed a coordinator of my care plan."
Bringing her medical history together
Donna began working with Dr. Amy Mechley, a practicing lifestyle medicine physician and HealthBook+'s Chief Clinical and Strategy Officer.
"Donna came to me after having survived some very complex medical issues," Dr. Mechley says. "She was left with some very serious chronic illnesses with a lot of complex instructions on what she should be doing, how she should be caring for herself, how many different physicians she should be checking in with and seeing, and when."
HealthBook+ brought Donna's medical information together so she and Dr. Mechley could review it in one place. They could see her history across providers and use it to prepare for the care she needed next.
"Once we got into HealthBook+, it was amazing we could bring all of that information together," Dr. Mechley says. "And then she became such an advocate for herself."
Preparing for specialist visits
Donna began using PaiGE™, HealthBook+'s clinician-led AI partner, to help organize her records and questions before seeing a specialist. She could ask about her medications or request notes for a particular appointment.
"She started asking PaiGE, 'Do these medications clash? What's the most important thing I can ask my cardiologist when I go see them next week? Can you organize all my notes for the endocrinologist?'" Dr. Mechley says. "So it literally organizes all of her records, but based upon the attention or the focus of what an endocrinologist would want to see, all in one place."
Having that preparation done gave her a clearer starting point for the conversation with each physician.
Feeling more involved in her care
Donna says the preparation PaiGE enables has changed how she feels walking into an appointment. With her information organized, she feels more comfortable asking questions and following up on the answers.
"When I go to a specialist, and I have PaiGE help me compile (my medical history), I feel in control," she says. "And I think that is the key in healthcare these days: you have control of your health and ask the questions and keep at it until you get what you're looking for from the physicians."
"It feels pretty good. I feel like I have a grasp on what's going on."
Watch more stories like Donna's in our "Seeing the Whole Person" video series.
