The Idea Dude

CONNECTING THE DOTS ONE AT A TIME

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Wellocities, a journey and not a destination... part 1

Sometimes life takes you down an unexpected road. Of course, you have to be a traveller to reach that path. TheGoodBlogs took us down such a path several months ago. We were asked to help create a unique website, a Canadian online health social networking site. It was an opportunity to work with some great people from my past and for a worthy cause in the future.

Please go ahead and pay them a visit. Mind the wet paint and the rough edges. There are many exciting changes to come, but to wait would have been wrong... this is for the people and so it should be built with the people. The budget was small but the hearts were big.

One such heart belongs to Dr Amol Deshpande, head health honcho at Wellocities. Amol's insight into Canadian healthcare and the value Wellocities could bring to the community moved me enough to make room on this blog for his views.

I asked Amol why he had such a passion for this new adventure...

Here was his reply
Every 3 minutes and 15 seconds or about the time you take to read this blog, one more Canadian will be diagnosed with cancer. Just over double that time, or every 7 minutes and 15 seconds one Canadian will die from cancer.

My intent is not to startle you, but rather to make you aware of the journey that many Canadians begin and end on a daily basis.

If you are diagnosed with cancer, you will join the almost 30-40% of Canadians (12M individuals) that have a chronic condition. These individuals will consume 70% of health care resources this year.

If you end up in this group, most likely your journey will begin, like theirs did, alone in a physician’s office. When you’re given your diagnosis you will have between 9 and 12 minutes (15 minutes tops) to ask all the relevant questions you have before being sent on your way. Now, as the babyboomers begin to turn 60 and move through the system that 9-12 minute window of ‘opportunity’ will begin to close. The time spent on meeting your needs will become shorter and shorter.

We founded Wellocities to help meet those needs.


In the next part, I ask Amol. "Where do most of us turn to get help when we need it most?"

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That 9 to 12 minutes is way too short to take in a diagnosis of a chronic condition. I would say that is one reason that patients need to know a great deal more than they planned to learn about health issues. If you don't know the basics you don't even know what questions to ask in your short window of opportunity. In the slow moving chronic conditions it can take you a year of visits (maybe 2 or 3) just to take the next step

1:25 PM  
Blogger The Idea Dude said...

Thanks for that insight. I think you've hit on the value that Wellocities or sites like it can bring. It bridges the knowledge gap a patient has and will not acquire entirely in the doctor's presence simply because 9 to 12 minutes is all he can afford with a full waiting room.

Being able to Google information is a partial answer. To be able to have a dialog with other people with similar conditions will help in knowing what to expect and what questions to ask next.

A chronic condition is indeed often a lengthy journey.

Thanks for stopping by.
Vern

1:36 PM  

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