Cancer Journeys Part 3: +StoryMD Health's Technology Empowers Personalized Health Journeys

<p>In <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://storymd.com/story/Kq2Wwa9c4A-susan-s-breast-cancer-journey-part-1-storymd-health-s-technology-empowers-her-personalized-health" tabindex="-1">Part 1 of Susan’s Breast Cancer Journey</a>, we explored Susan Tsiaras’s first-hand account of navigating breast cancer using the alpha version of +StoryMD Health. In <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://storymd.com/story/kAv2rGBSYA-susan-s-breast-cancer-journey-part-2-storymd-health-s-technology-empowers-her-personalized-health" tabindex="-1">Part 2</a>, we presented a side-by-side visual comparison of Susan’s Journey using her institutional Patient Portals and the same journey in <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/" tabindex="-1">StoryMD</a> and +StoryMD Health. In this final part, <strong>Cancer Journeys Part 3:</strong> <strong>+StoryMD Health's Technology Empowers Personalized Health Journeys, </strong>we demonstrate the soon-to-launch +StoryMD Health platform that will be available to guide anyone on their future health journeys, with an initial focus on Cancer Journeys.</p> <h2>Peter's Lung Cancer Journey</h2> <p>Peter has a history of breathing issues, and when this progressed to chest pain, fatigue, and bronchitis, his healthcare team dug further and found the root of the problem: lung cancer. After some more intensive diagnostic tests like a fine-needle aspiration biopsy of the lung, a chest CT scan, and tests for genetic markers, they were able to determine his cancer was stage 3C and EGFR-positive, meaning the disease had spread. That’s a frightening diagnosis, but Peter and his healthcare team were determined to curtail the cancer, get the symptoms under control as best as possible, and maximize his longevity and quality of life.</p> <p>Luckily for Peter, there’s a drug designed precisely for people in his position: Iressa, a medication that blocks signals telling cancer cells to grow. His doctors informed him that Iressa could push back the tide of cancer by as much as five years, offering a significant timeframe in which Peter could work to improve his health so that he is not just surviving but thriving in life. Peter knows that at some point Iressa will eventually fail. At this point, they’ll have to switch to chemoradiation, so making the most of the available time to optimize his situation is vital. Along the journey, it will be necessary to track Peter’s symptoms long-term, including appetite, fatigue, and breathing, on top of regular hospital visits to monitor disease progression. This monitoring involves obtaining Peter’s complete blood count panel, liver function tests to check for side effects of Iressa, chest X-rays, and more. Peter also has to manage the side effects of his medication program and was recommended an ointment for dry skin, along with an exercise program to keep up both his mental and general health.</p> <p>With a complex, multifaceted picture of health, multiple institutions managing his care, and splintered data sources tracking his progress, Peter was an ideal candidate to capitalize on all that +StoryMD Health offers as an all-encompassing health management platform. Through the platform, Peter consolidated all his information and data under one system, establishing a digital headquarters with a complete overview of his health. His data is continually cross-referenced with the platform’s vast, coded medical library to address each and every aspect of his condition, no matter what comes up. As Peter’s digital hand-holder, +StoryMD Health provides context-rich multimedia information on any conceivable issue or topic related to his health and wellness, delivered with depth and authority, and the content is automatically mapped to his profile by AI according to the data sourced from his medical record and wearables.</p> <h3>Theme 1: StoryMD's Large Language Model is Optimally Coded to Translate Your Medical Records into the Story of You</h3> <p>Through <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/" tabindex="-1">StoryMD</a>, Peter had access to an unparalleled digital knowledge base for his condition: the <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/" tabindex="-1">StoryMD</a><a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://storymd.com/journey/LA1JKZXcno-lung-cancer-journey" tabindex="-1"> Lung Cancer Journey</a>, an encyclopedic, multimedia resource that unravels the mystery of this disease. This library gifted Peter with a masterclass on lung anatomy; a breakdown of major lung cancer types; how screening works and why it is so critical; and intimate knowledge of his diagnosis.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="464" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/RqVRNRQSxq/original.gif" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 1: </strong>The Lung Cancer Journey on StoryMD</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h3>Theme 2: Effortlessly Import and Consolidate Your Data from Multiple Medical Records, Wearables, Paper Documents, PDFs, and Manual Entries</h3> <p>To get a baseline understanding of his situation, Peter needed to auto-import into his +StoryMD Health profile all his critical health data from wearable devices and the multiple hospitals participating in his care. In the images below, we can see the multiple wearables and Electronic Health Records (EHR) that comprise Peter's Connections' data sources.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="506" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/6qyzJzPf5A/original.gif" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 2: </strong>The Connections menu in +StoryMD Health allows users to connect to hospital accounts, a wide range of health apps, and smart health devices</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h4>Wearable data synced from Fitbit</h4> <p>On his +StoryMD Health dashboard, Peter can observe his steps data (as synced from his Fitbit) in a visually rich trend card to see how he is faring with his goals. Elsewhere on the dashboard, he can see data sourced from other wearables and his EHR. Peter has a bird’s-eye view of all his data trends so he can track how each component evolves over time and take action.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="506" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/pA75v5Gcld/original.png" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 3: </strong>Peter’s +StoryMD Health dashboard demonstrating his steps data, which is synced via his Fitbit, along with medications and other biomarker trends</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h4>OCR AI</h4> <p>Piecing together a complete picture of your health covers everything from modern digital PDFs with clearly organized information to old, crinkly paper forms from years ago. Whatever the quality of your data sources, they are all relevant and need to be accounted for, and digitizing, analyzing, and categorizing this information under a unified framework takes some virtual brains. <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/ai-technology" tabindex="-1">StoryMD’s AI</a> uses optical character recognition (OCR) to identify and extract data from analog reports and then translates it into digitized information. Peter was able to add his digital and paper lab reports to his +StoryMD Health advanced patient portal, eliminating clutter and providing a secure storage space for all his records.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="506" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/lqLzNzpuKo/original.gif" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 4: </strong>+StoryMD Health uses optical character recognition and AI to read digital and paper lab reports and add them to a user's +StoryMD Health account</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h4>Manual entry</h4> <p>Not every piece of information relevant to your case gets registered by a medical record or wearable and auto-imported into your account. To facilitate a complete record, the platform has a manual entry option, and Peter is making use of it here to register his ointment medication that is countering the dry skin he is experiencing as a result of taking Iressa. He can also add a note to record his thoughts on this entry.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="506" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/2dZMyMRujo/original.gif" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><b>Image 5: </b>+StoryMD Health has a manual entry option for pieces of information not auto-imported into your account by a medical record or wearable device</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h3>Theme 3: StoryMD’s Proprietary StoryBlock Technology Maps Relevant Content to Your Journey</h3> <p><a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/ai-technology" tabindex="-1">StoryBlocks</a> are the building blocks of +StoryMD Health. <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/ai-technology" tabindex="-1">StoryBlock</a> builds on the existing Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard, allowing +StoryMD Health to seamlessly import information from any Electronic Health Record (EHR). Data received from the patient's EHR intelligently uses <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/ai-technology" tabindex="-1">StoryMD's proprietary AI technology</a> to map the <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/ai-technology" tabindex="-1">StoryBlock</a> content to your +StoryMD Health journey, converting your medical records from indecipherable data to a story that you can understand and act on.</p> <h4>Opening chest CT image</h4> <p>Inside Peter’s +StoryMD Health advanced patient portal, we can find a record of his chest CT scan at Princess Margaret Hospital, complete with imaging identifying pleural irregularities. Further reading is linked below to provide context on diagnostic testing, lung anatomy, and more.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="596" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/7ogbgbZtjA/original.png" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 6: </strong>A procedure-type <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/ai-technology" tabindex="-1">StoryBlock</a> showing Peter's chest CT Scan results, along with additional reading recommendations mapped via AI</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h4>EGFR rabbit hole</h4> <p>With a full diagnosis of stage 3C cancer that is <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="/topic/Ro62xk6i9o-egfr-genetic-test" tabindex="-1">EGFR-positive</a>, you can imagine how strong Peter’s appetite was for knowledge so he could understand exactly what every element means. The proprietary <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/ai-technology" tabindex="-1">StoryBlock AI technology</a> fully maps, tracks, and explains every component of Peter’s health journey, from comorbidities and medications to sleep, pain, emotional states, and his thoughts on healthcare providers and institutions. Peter received tailored EGFR-positive content straight to his profile, allowing him to obtain a holistic understanding of what this diagnosis means for his treatment course and the genetic science that underpins it, along with ample related material offering a rabbit hole of information that he could explore at his leisure.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="506" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/koXnRnVCEq/original.gif" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 7: </strong><a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/library" tabindex="-1">StoryMD's library</a> contains thousands of articles that are automatically mapped to a users' test results on their timeline. Here, Peter received tailored EGFR-positive content from his EFGR Genetic Test results in his timeline.</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h4>Medication deep dive</h4> <p>When you are given a drug that is pushing your lifespan forward by many years, you know it has to be made of powerful stuff. Iressa is necessary for Peter’s treatment but comes with potentially serious side effects including inflammation that affects the lungs and liver. Peter’s +StoryMD Health profile has everything he needs to know about his condition and available medications. In plain language, he can read about the signs he needs to watch out for if evidence emerges of complications. This way, he can notify his doctor when an issue arises.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="506" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/kAvk6k3Heo/original.gif" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 8: </strong><a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/library" tabindex="-1">StoryMD's library</a> contains all the details about a user's medication, including common side effects</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h3>Theme 4: Your Digital Health Diary Facilitates Deep Personalization</h3> <p>As a health management platform that caters to the physical, mental, and emotional components of your health journey, the digital diary is a key feature that provides patients with opportunities to record their achievements, inner fears, hopes, inspirations, the inevitable ups and downs, and their thoughts on treatments, doctors, surgeries, and more. Over time, you can review your entries to gain emotional fortitude, know how far you’ve come, and humanize the story of your health journey. In Susan’s story, we saw her ritual with Mr. Blueberry and her gift from her son Andreas to celebrate the completion of her chemo. In a selection of Peter’s entries, he excitedly reflects on how enough of his strength has returned to chop wood and his optimistic plans for the summer.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="655" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/pqDRER9IPo/original.png" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 9: </strong>A personal note from Peter on his +StoryMD Health timeline about how he's been feeling great. He included an image of the firewood he chopped.</p> </figcaption> </figure> <p>A moment of tenderness to capture the <a data-library="PAp6zrQhPd" data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="/journal/m8kdv76fpm-coping-with-cancer" tabindex="-1">emotional weight</a> of Peter’s cancer and the companionship of his feline fellow: the love and support of friends, family — and yes, pets — are sometimes the only things that keep you going on a cancer journey. You won’t find an HL7 code for it, but experiencing the warm comfort of a loving pet while undergoing a health journey is priceless, and that’s why <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/" tabindex="-1">StoryMD</a> makes space for it through the digital diary.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="512" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/Xdbnznxi0d/original.png" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 10: </strong>A personal note from Peter on his +StoryMD Health timeline about his companionship with his cat Sammy. He included an image of Sammy.</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h3>Theme 5: Sharing Your Journey with Family, Friends, or Healthcare Providers</h3> <p>The Share feature allows you to share all of your health journey or only select parts with trusted connections: share your Journey with friends and family so they can better understand what you’re going through; get a second opinion; work with a team of caregivers; or privately deliver select medical information to one of your healthcare providers. See how Peter can isolate exactly what components of his story he wants to share and how he can secure the data with a password.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="506" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/8ojW2WaCLd/original.gif" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 11:</strong> Users can share their health data with others by category, tag, or source. They are offered two kinds of security: password protection and/or expiry date.</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h3>Theme 6: Mapping the Uncoded Health and Wellness Steps in Your Journey</h3> <p>Often, on medical journeys, critical elements are not part of the typical coded clinical world of the electronic health record. Still, nonetheless, they are powerful moments on your journey. As we saw in Susan’s Journey, there was no code for the grading of her cancer, the learning and tracking of her post-mastectomy exercises, nor the cold cap that preserved her hair follicles as she underwent chemotherapy. <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="http://about.storymd.com/" tabindex="-1">StoryMD</a> recognizes the value of these experiences, which is why the vast <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/library" tabindex="-1">StoryMD library</a> auto-imports them (or you can manually import them from the library). You can add comments on your timeline and personalized information such as notes, pictures, and videos.</p> <p>In the wake of his diagnosis, Peter’s mood was understandably low, so to boost his spirits and optimism, his doctor recommended that he start incorporating light exercise into his routine. He recorded this whole process through the notes feature, where he detailed his consultations with his doctor and family, getting on board with a Fitbit, and trying out yoga with his wife.</p> <p>While researching the relationship between cancer, exercise, and mental health, Peter found an article in the <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/library" tabindex="-1">StoryMD library</a> that explained its significance. The article provided a no-nonsense explanation of how and why it’s important to keep moving while living with cancer to keep one's spirits high. Peter added the article to his note on the topic.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="506" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/NAlZnZetNd/original.gif" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 12:</strong> In a personal note, Peter wrote about how doing light exercises could boost his mood. He also attached an article from the <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/library" tabindex="-1">StoryMD library</a> on this topic.</p> </figcaption> </figure> <p>This second note illustrates Peter’s path to becoming intimately acquainted with his lungs, their anatomy, and what it all means for his disease.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="495" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/Wdx6w67teA/original.png" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 13: </strong>The <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/library" tabindex="-1">StoryMD library</a> contains detailed lung anatomy information. Here, Peter has attached an article to a note on his timeline on lung pleura to better his understanding of lung anatomy and lung cancer.</p> </figcaption> </figure> <h3>Theme 7: A Repository of Extensive Libraries to Manage All Cancer Journeys<strong> </strong></h3> <p>The <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://about.storymd.com/" tabindex="-1">StoryMD</a> <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://storymd.com/journey/LA1JKZXcno-lung-cancer-journey" tabindex="-1">Lung Cancer Journey</a>, the repository of information that formed the bedrock of Peter’s journey, is just one of over 20 extended libraries covering the top cancers, all of which are available on the <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="http://about.storymd.com/" tabindex="-1">StoryMD</a> platform. Whether cervical, ovarian, thyroid, or bladder cancer, the very same breadth and depth of information is available to anyone dealing with such a diagnosis. As a unit, <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="http://about.storymd.com/" tabindex="-1">StoryMD</a>’s monumental collection of <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://storymd.com/journeys?category=cancers" tabindex="-1">cancer journeys</a> forms one of the most complete and thorough digital oncology archives in the world.</p> <figure><img alt="" height="464" src="https://cdn.storymd.com/optimized/4AwB9BNsrq/original.gif" width="900" /> <figcaption> <p><strong>Image 14: </strong>A quick overview of the many cancer journey resources available on StoryMD</p> </figcaption> </figure> <p>Let <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://storymd.com/health" tabindex="-1">+StoryMD Health</a> guide you and your loved ones to better health journey outcomes.</p> <p>The <a data-tabindex-counter="1" data-tabindex-value="none" href="https://storymd.com/health" tabindex="-1">+StoryMD Health</a> tools and features that transformed Susan's and Peter’s Journeys will be available to the public in August 2024.</p> <h2>More on Cancer Journeys</h2><ul><li><a href="https://soulivity.storymd.com/journal/oja82bzi4w-evaluating-health-information" target="_blank">Evaluating Health Information</a></li><li><a href="https://soulivity.storymd.com/journal/wl2py4zcej-electronic-health-record" target="_blank">The Benefits of Having an Electronic Health Record (EHR)</a></li><li><a href="https://soulivity.storymd.com/journal/4m8add60pw-artificial-intelligence" target="_blank">Artificial (AI) for Health: How Computers Are Helping Medicine</a></li></ul>