When it comes to navigating U.S. healthcare, fewer patient experiences are more daunting, frustrating, and confusing than trying to keep all your providers on the same page. Grace Cordovano, PhD recognized this at a very young age––essentially acting as her family’s healthcare sherpa and translator––and has since become one of the nation’s preeminent patient care advocates.
A self-proclaimed knowledge seeker, patient administrative burden hacker, and clarity provider, Cordovano has dedicated her career to helping solve vexing healthcare information issues. Her latest venture, Unblock Health, offers a SaaS tool to address the barriers of patient-directed access.
Ultimately, as Cordovano notes, the medical record remains the central source of truth. However, it can take 40 to 60 hours to aggregate one person’s medical records. The cancer diagnosis, the imaging, the pathology from multiple organizations, data from numerous providers––all must be collected in order to schedule the first appointment with a specialist. They need to see that information. But, Cordovano maintains, that 40 to 60 hours is unsustainable––and is actually the definition of insanity.
How is technology helping? And where are we in the quest to provide patients with the information, tools, and support they need to manage their care? Dr. Anders and Dr. Cordovano cover a lot of ground in this episode, including:
- Anders’ personal anecdote about the struggle to get medical information to the right place at the right time
- How navigating healthcare has been a highly personal, lifelong pursuit for Dr. Cordovano
- The role of technology –– EHRs have not been the panacea for information exchange
- Patient administrative burden
- Moving beyond access for access sake to access for action’s sake
- How patients can be empowered to own their data and health journey
- 21st Century Cures…information blocking…VBC…QHINs…are they helping?
- Open access AI tools stand to level the playing field for patients
- Why patient advocates should rely on generative AI tools
- Unblock Health’s approach to digitizing patient advocacy and health information management
- How the Unblock Health model benefits providers as well
- How can we make EHRs ‘smarter’? The future role of technology
- The future of patient advocacy
- “If you had a magic wand and could change anything in healthcare IT today, what would it be?”
Show Links
- Grace Cordovano on LinkedIn
- Unblock Health
- Unblock Health on LinkedIn
- Enlightening Results
- Advancing Digital Health Innovation in Oncology: Priorities for High-Value Digital Transformation in Cancer Care (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
- Grace Cordovano interview at HIMSS 23 on HIMSS TV
Listen to this episode and all episodes of Tell Me Where IT Hurts here or wherever you get your podcasts as part of the HealthcareNow Radio Network.
