Prioritizing the Patient

While the Covid Pandemic has taught us a multitude of things, its most essential contribution has been its reinforcement of the importance of public health. The layers of stakeholder management coupled with the plethora of operational obstacles make public health one of humanity’s most complex challenges. Yet, the tangible impact on ordinary lives following the successful execution of a public health program makes it among the most rewarding problems to solve.

We can have all the vaccines and medicines and resources and policies, but the success of a public healthcare program can truly only be gauged by its impact on the patient. Often, in the chaos of policymakers’ challenges, staff and provider availability, and optimizing resource allocation, patient engagement and support can take a back seat. To ensure the patient stays at the fulcrum of the public health program, Everwell Health has launched The Hub Health Companion (HHC). The HHC currently allows users to record their adherence daily, view their treatment details, and connect with the healthcare staff supporting their treatment.

While a public healthcare program is challenging in almost any environment, the complexity increases manifold in lower to medium income countries. These countries face a significant resource crunch often leading to overworked and underpaid healthcare staff. Patients are often not completely aware of their condition as a whole, the next steps of their treatment, and the provisions of the program for their recovery and welfare. This further adds to the workload of the healthcare system in general and staff in particular.

To increase awareness on the patient’s side while reducing the workload on the staff, the Hub Health Companion will soon be introducing the Digitized Patient Treatment Journey (PTJ). To engage the patients, inform them about their treatment, and make them take ownership of their recovery, the PTJ will include all the steps and provisions of the public healthcare program, customized to the patient’s treatment. Not only would the patient be able to see the past activities they have undertaken, but they will also get an understanding of what’s next on their road to recovery. They would know the upcoming actions, the date on which it is due, and any steps they can take to initiate it. This additional information and engagement would enable them to take even more ownership of their recovery, thus improving their health and reducing the burden on the healthcare staff.

While the primary goal would be to engage with the patient, the data generated from the digitized treatment journey would help public health decision-makers in tweaking policies and optimizing resource allocation. Collating data across patients under a program would help decision-makers identify common bottlenecks and areas of delay, or discover steps that are skippedaltogether. They would know which areas to focus on, what steps to add or modify, and identify newer opportunities for investment to plug the gaps. Decisions on where to improve training, whereto add more human resources, and where to pilot new technologies would become more data-driven.

For more information about the Hub Health Companion Application, Patient Treatment Journey, and other Everwell offerings, connect with us at contact@everwell.org and visit our website https://www.everwell.org/