Dr. Maria Hester is a
hospitalist (hospital-based physician) and the Principal of Savvier Health,
LLC. Dr. Hester joins Doctors
Ketcherside and Creese in responding to the question, “What does healing mean
to you?”
I am continually fascinated by
these physicians who take an idea, bring it into fruition, and infuse that idea
into every aspect of a brand. For Dr.
Hester, that means becoming a catalyst for or fostering patient empowerment
whenever and wherever possible. In her
practice, her books, and her mobile apps, she encourages patients and families to:
1. Take an active role in
the healing process
2. Learn how to communicate
key information to physicians
Dr. Hester writes about empowerment in trade publications
and blogs as well. She is published on
IMNG Medical Media, 913life, BellaOnline.com, and through Jennings Wire. Her ideas behind empowerment have very much
to do with the reasons she switched from pursuing a biomedical engineering
degree at Purdue to medicine. Initially,
she resisted going into medicine though her father and brothers are
physicians. “I needed to talk to people,
to ask them questions, to see their expressions, help them; yet, I wanted to still
pursue my love of science.” The direct
contact with helping people was not there in biomedical engineering. Medicine allowed her to combine all of the above.
This desire to better communicate with patients helped form
her definition of healing. “Healing is
body, mind, and spirit. It is one thing
for a physician to prescribe a treatment or medication. The science is crucial but the patient will
more likely get a good outcome if the patient is compliant and believes in the
potential results. Patients will likely
have better outcomes if they communicate effectively with their physicians and
take their medications as prescribed.” This takes being active - a certain
amount of savvy from the patient that leads to empowerment.
“Patients may not realize that their recovery
or managing an illness can be much better,” remarked Dr. Hester. The feedback she receives from patients helps
her with increasing the useful inventory in her medical bag with, what she
calls, a multi-pronged approach to healing.
For example, a person goes to
the doctor. He may be given a
questionnaire to fill out, but not really remember all the answers. The doctor orders some tests. Medication or treatment is prescribed. He pays the bill and is out the door without
serious understanding of how to get better. “The patient has the ability to change that
flow.”
I asked, “Is that how you see
apps for mobile devices as being effective - in changing that flow? I mean, you are spending a lot of time
developing them.”
“Apps are part
of our medical future. Apps are
fast. Apps are easy. You have access to information on the go,
seconds here, minutes there. Those seconds
and minutes can save your life by helping you to learn many things about your
health. “
“So, knowledge is a path to health
empowerment,” I added. “But people need
a tool or two?”
“Yes. Some patients do not know much about their
condition or remember all of their medications.
It can be a headache for the providers.
It’s going to be a long time before doctors and nurses have universal
access to medical records. The apps are
tools owned and controlled by the patient.”
“What would an app do?”
“It should be encrypted. It should have reminders. Patients depend completely on the physician
to call about results. Before an appointment, a patient can record
blood sugar readings, blood pressure, list of medications and dosages, new
symptoms or questions that come up beforehand.”
“Like the questions you forgot
to ask?”
“Little tidbits of information
add up that can make a difference in your health.” The more relevant tidbits the better, a
forgotten question is a tidbit that could be important.
Her current app is Patient Whiz. The app is owned by the
user and helps to further empower users by giving them a way to input medical
history, current concerns, medications, and appointments with audible alerts
all in one place. There are helpful
external links as well.
One function of
the app which particularly caught my attention was
the list of questions that helps app owners capture information about
particular symptoms in a way that should be more useful to the physician. Take abdominal
pain for example, the app takes the user beyond just the location of the
pain. The app guides the user to answer
questions like:
- when did the pain
start?
- what eases the pain?
- what makes it better?
- does it radiate? from
where?
“The app enables the
patient and doctor to move past so much back and forth in gathering the basic
information and move to other meaningful exchanges.” The app has useful links for the user to gain
knowledge about conditions and medications as well.
The app offers a method
of carrying key information when traveling, especially so in the case of those
being treated for chronic conditions or undergoing treatment. Users can print this information as well.
“Healing is a
multi-pronged approach.” There are
forks in the road… choices. Only a
portion of those choices has to do directly with the medical and support
staff. “The patient must become more inquisitive,
compliant, knowledgeable, and involved.”
These patient actions have a great deal to do with the road taken and
where that road leads. Dr. Hester’s
mobile app, Patient Whiz, offers a method of assisting physicians and patients
to develop options and make choices that keep them on the road to better
health. Patient Whiz is available on
iTunes and will soon be available for Droid devices.
