How PaiGE Helped Find Sam's Diagnosis When Standard Tests Couldn't
“Okay, we’re getting to an answer, we’re getting to the root of what’s going on, and now we can start to fix it."
When Sam began having heart palpitations, she initially thought they might be related to post-menopause. But the episodes became more frequent and felt stronger, leaving her concerned that something else was going on.
She spoke with her lifestyle medicine physician of four years, Dr. Amy Mechley, HealthBook+'s Chief Clinical and Strategy Officer. Dr. Mechley arranged two weeks of heart monitoring and blood tests, but the initial results did not provide Sam a clear explanation for her symptoms.
“It was a little frustrating not knowing what the next step was,” Sam says.
Bringing her health information together
Sam’s blood tests showed high calcium and low phosphate levels. Her calcium levels, however, did not initially seem high enough to explain the heart palpitations.
Dr. Mechley brought the information into HealthBook+ to make sense of the clinical data. PaiGE™, HealthBook+’s clinician-led, AI partner, helped her consider whether the calcium levels could still be contributing to Sam’s symptoms.
Dr. Mechley and Sam then used that information to make sense of what to investigate next
“Using HealthBook+, I felt that Dr. Mechley was able to take a lot of information and bring it all into a unified view that we could look at together,” she says.
Finding the cause of her symptoms
Dr. Mechley now suspected hyperparathyroidism and continued to monitor the situation closely. For Sam, having a possible explanation was a relief.
“Okay, we’re getting to an answer, we’re getting to the root of what’s going on, and now we can start to fix it,” she recalls thinking.
As Sam’s calcium levels continued to rise, Dr. Mechley referred her to an endocrinologist for further evaluation. A scan revealed a growth on a parathyroid gland, which was then removed.
“The surgeon removed that growth, and the heart palpitations pretty much went away,” Sam says.
Helping her physician reach the right next step
Without Healthbook+, Dr. Mechley says she would likely have continued investigating heart issues before considering other possible causes. Because the calcium results were only modestly abnormal, the connection was not immediately clear.
She credits PaiGE with helping her reach the right course of care sooner. She believes that more direct path also reduced the emotional and financial burden of a longer search for answers.
“It was the best care for her at the right time,” Dr. Mechley says.
Feeling relief after getting an answer
The symptoms and uncertainty Sam was experiencing were affecting her daily life. Along with the heart palpitations, she was dealing with the stress of not being able to understand what was wrong.
Thanks to Dr. Mechley and HealthBook+, she got her explanation and course of treatment, which helped her feel that she was finally moving forward.
“Instead of going down five different paths, we were able to go down one path more directly, and it was the right path,” she says.
“So I’m so happy to get it taken care of as fast as we did.”
Watch more stories like Sam's in our "Seeing the Whole Person" video series.
