Decision and Coordination Fatigue Are Real. Technology Can Help.

I have a friend with a serious medical condition. 

She had to cart an ever-growing file of her medical records, notes, pharmacy receipts and more, patiently telling her story from the beginning each time she saw a new specialist. She was so tired of perpetually being at square one, her file filled to the brim, so often in the simple quest to feel better. And when multiple providers were involved, it was even worse because she then had to make sure they each knew what the other had advised, prescribed, and recommended.

At the time, I wasn’t CEO of Welkin and I remember thinking how awful it was for her, emotionally and mentally, to be in this place not just one time but nearly every time. And because I’m an analytical person, I found myself wondering if her many doctors were equally frustrated, wishing there was a way they could vault over the preliminaries and just get to the most important part: actually treating the patient.

It turns out that technology can solve some of that problem by putting every member of a care team on the same page and relieving the burden of patient self-advocacy. It’s called care management and it’s what we do here at Welkin Health.

The point of our platform is to eliminate the fatigue associated with decision making and coordination of care and make it effortless for any care team member to instantly understand what the patient needs and what comes next. That means everything associated with patient care is in one accessible place, from prescriptions and appointments to secure, HIPAA-compliant patient communication and test results, from sharing notes and getting alerts when something is urgent to clinical workflows and document management. We even ensure patient history is captured in full — if you’ve discussed it and made it part of the care plan, it’s in the system for easy reference.

We’ve built in automation capability and made it breathtakingly simple to adapt and use because we think care teams — not outside technologists — should be able to decide how to automate parts of the care process. And they should be able to do it immediately themselves. Time spent waiting for a vendor to configure changes means time not spent on patient care. In other words, time wasted.

We’ve spent countless hours really listening to the expertise of the medical advisors on our board, in our networks, our chief medical officer and customers. Because we know that a technology platform that truly serves care teams — and, ultimately, patients — needs to be built from the ground up and reflect the reality of the working clinician. And we will continue those crucial conversations and spend that time as we build and roll out new features and functionality. 

Over time, the care a medical team provides patients changes — as they learn more, as new innovation becomes available, and as scientific discoveries are made. We’ve purpose-built Welkin to be an adaptive platform — tailorable, intuitive, comprehensive — that seamlessly flexes in response to changing care team demands and shifts in medical approaches. When we do our job right, we know we make it easier for you to do yours well.