Showing posts with label Cancer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cancer. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Nephosity teams up with the CSC Benjamin Center in Tech Tools for Care Management



Earlier this month, Nephosity was kindly invited to teach a course on tech tools for care management - introducing cancer patients at the CSC Benjamin Center in Los Angeles to helpful (and free!) web or mobile based tools to help manage care.

The Benjamin Center is an extremely warm and welcoming home to all individuals touched by cancer - offering free-of-charge services including educational classes, support groups, fun activities and more. Whether you are a patient, a caretaker or just supporting a loved one going through cancer, you will be welcomed with open arms at the CSC. It is truly a wonderful place.


CSC Benjamin Center located in West LA, CA
Our course on patient tech tools received an overwhelmingly positive response from the group, and it was an amazing experience to hear patient and caretaker stories regarding their frustrations with currently available "technologies". We were so grateful by the positive response from the group that we were inspired to share our materials with others who might find our content useful. 

All technology tools we've curated are free (or low-priced) web and mobile applications aimed at helping you - or your caretaker, or loved one - better manage your health as you battle illness.

The list includes tools to help you:
- locate lower cost prescription drugs at nearby pharmacies
- upload and share your medical images 
- manage your health records
- track your health bills
- and more

Find the full list, here, and let us know your experience with any of these in the comments below, as well as any additional apps we may be missing! We look forward to hearing your responses.

Finally, if you are in the Los Angeles area, look forward to future workshop panels on how to use health technology to better manage your and your loved ones' health. 

Thank you!


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Managing My Father's Cancer: A Caretaker's Story



My dad and I
I spent the last 3 years of my Dad’s life as his caregiver, as he battled metastasized bladder cancer.  As his caregiver, all I wanted to do was to make him better, to make him stronger, to give him the tools and knowledge that would lead him toward improved health.  I wanted him to focus on himself and focus on his future, while I focused on everything else.   

It was my first real experience with our nation’s health care system, and I had to make decisions about my Dad’s health while going 135 miles per hour.  What I found is what most people know in this situation: that so many things about today’s health care system are so agonizingly frustrating.  I’m sure I could start to make a list that highlights all my frustrations, and I’m sure as I am typing now, that I could still be writing this list by the end of tomorrow and not be anywhere near to being finished with it.  Near the top of my list, however, would be the very problem that Nephosity’s Jack Imaging is attempting to solve - medical image transfer and storage.  I don’t know how many times I called a doctor’s office on behalf of my Dad to request his medical images be put onto a CD for his referring doctor, only to learn that the process was stalled somewhere, or the CD didn’t arrive on time, or I was charged fees for expedited processing.  I really don’t want to count the number of times I did this because those are the times I spent away from my Dad.  

Years ago the CD was the latest and greatest technology - years ago the CD was better than the hard film copies that patients had to lug around to their doctor’s offices.  But today, technology has advanced beyond the CD, and it's time to keep up. I'm excited to see how cloud technology can bring efficiencies to transferring and storing medical images because, for someone else out there caring for their loved one, each efficiency we introduce means less time spent away from the person or people who matter most.

- Jessica


Visit JackImaging.com to find out how you can upload your own or your loved one's medical images for free.