7A- Testing the Hypothesis Part 1

The opportunity I have chosen came to mind when I came down with the flu. I realized it when the doctor was asking me so many questions I did not know the answer to. People who are sick and go to the doctor are asked several questions about their symptoms, health history and medications and the patients sometimes do not know all the answers because they do not remember or simply do not keep track of the medical issues and health.

Who: Sick patients

The what: cannot answer questions from their doctors about their medications, symptoms and medical history.

The Why: people usually do not keep track of what date they started to feel symptoms, the scientific names of their medications they are on and their medical history.

Testing the who: Everyone from young adults to elderly people can keep better track of their own medical history. People can forget or not really be conscious of how important it is to track their symptoms and medical history. Not only one demographic group can benefit from this opportunity.

Testing the what: The boundaries of the need are that some people do not care to be conscious of their health. Some elderly people do not have good memory to remember their medical history. Patients are sometimes unaware that they should be recording how long a symptom has been lasting or to write down how long they have been on a medication. The lack of communication between patients and doctor’s pre-appointment is clearly there.

Testing the why: Some people are very in touch with their symptoms and medications, in a study by Humana’s population health management company, 97 percent of people believe it is important for any health institution to have access to their full medical history to “deliver high-quality care”.  Despite this, people still have trouble sending their medical records to new doctors. Some hospitals still run on very old ways of file keeping.

Interview #1: In this interview I spoke with a 21-year-old girl who is currently taking care of her Dad in the hospital while she is in school. Her Dad is not doing well in the hospital he is in now and he needs to move to a better one. She explained to me how hard it is for her to move her Dad because of how complicated the moving process is. Transferring medical records and doctor’s notes are a nightmare. She was concerned that the old doctors would not communicate with the new doctors effectively and her Dad wouldn’t receive the right care. She was scared and clearly emotional while telling the story.

Interview #2: In this interview I spoke with a 20-year-old boy who was sick with a cold. I asked him what his Minute Clinic appointment was like at CVS. He said the nurse asked him a lot of questions about his symptoms and when they had started. He didn’t know when the nose congestion had started exactly and he wondered if that would have changed the nurse’s opinion of his cold. He knew that it had started a few weeks ago but didn’t know exactly when. When I had mentioned if he thought it could be more than a cold, he answered yes.

Interview #3: This 50-year-old man told me the story of when he went to the genetic doctor when his son was born because his son was born with a disability. The doctor began asking the man about his medical history all the way back to when he was born. The geneticist wanted to know is he had passed this gene or if the Dad had the same condition but the Dad did not know a lot of the answers to the questions. He did not remember his childhood medical history and he did not have any parents he could ask because they had passed away. This dilemma people face every day. The Dad knew he had been on medication before when he was a child but he did not remember the name. The doctor could not get the full story and it impacted the outcome of the appointment.

Interview 4: This 80-year-old woman suffers from dementia and has a hard time remembering the names of her medications. She visits the doctor’s office once every 3 months for minor issues. If an emergency arises she mostly likely would not remember the name of her medication. Luckily, she said to me that she has family that could help her In the hospital if that issue arises. She was hesitant to talk about her dementia but she admitted that she writes down a lot of her medical information on paper in her journal so she can reread some of the content if need be.

Interview #5: 21-year-old medical student here at UF. I asked her if she has been in a situation where she didn’t know the name of a medication. She mentioned that her birth control has a long name and she has to keep the name of it as a note in her phone. She also said that in class she never really discusses these communications issues between doctors and their patients. It is always just assumed that the doctor has all the information and knows all the symptoms. These logistical problems are never discussed. She agreed that there is a disconnect between patients and doctors because people tend to forget a lot of information because they find it unimportant.

Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn’t know before?

-        People tend to forget information because they do not find it important. People just think they will get better before things get worse. People don’t self-monitor their symptom until it is too late. The medical student reiterated this to me in her interview. It highlighted the lack of care people have in recording their medical information.

-        From the 80-year-old woman I realized how easy it is for elderly people to lose track of the medical information. Dementia is very common and that leads me to believe that many people suffer from these same problems

-        The Dad going through the process of trying to figure out his medical history taught me how hard it is to track down old medical records because of the computerized systems change. The Dad could not find his childhood medical records because the pediatrician didn’t exist anymore. The files were lost and he could not help his son.

-        Something that surprised me was how people do not think tracking their symptoms and medications is important. These are the very first questions a doctors tends to ask but a lot of the times people do not know the answers.