WHISE is an idea!
An idea to empower patients and put them in control of their healthcare.
Before we explain the idea, let us tell you a story that re-examines how healthcare works today, tells you about stakeholders, emphasizes what is broken and proposes what it takes to fix it. Along the way you will learn some of the vocabilary used by healthcare professionals and will be able to make sense of it. Our story is centered around the single, most important instrument of 21st century medicine:
it is about your medical data.
The healthcare enterprise starts and ends with patients!
When we, humans get sick and visit a doctor, we are called patients.
We get diangosed, get lab results; we develop a treatment plan with our doctor; end up consuming healthcare products.
Sometimes, when we encounter uncurable conditions, we participate in clinical trials as a last chance resort; we rely on science and cutting edge technology hoping that it will help elongate our lives or discovere a cure.
We try to sustain or recover health and along the way pay for everything not just by our money, but with our time, our health, and the support of our families and friends.
Ultimately every patient gets old, health deteriorates and eventually we arrive to the end of life.
Regardless of our origins, our wealth and abilities, our positions and networks; you might be an executive of a large bank or janitor, a school teacher or a president, a doctor or student;
in the eyes of a disease — all of us are patients in our journey of life!
Your doctor is your trusted partner working for you!
During your visit, the doctor decides what analyses should be performed.
He or she then refers you to different labs for specimen collection and measurements.
Upon arrival of the data from labs, the doctors interpret it in order to diagnose and treat you.
You phycisian then bills you and your insurance company by sending specific treatment and disease codes.
You doctor then follows up with you to make sure you are better or haven’t gotten worse.
The information generated on the patients’ behalf during the entire process is then reported by doctors and nurses into medical record databases.
This information has an immense value for your own future health and can be used for designing new treatments, new drugs, new devices through scientific research and engineering.
