Pre-Meet: Multiple Sclerosis is designed to help patients who have been referred to a multiple sclerosis specialist by helping them prepare before their appointment, know what to expect during their examination, and learn crucial next steps to follow depending on the outcome of the appointment. Many different types of patients are referred to a multiple sclerosis specialist including migraine headache sufferers, individuals who are free of symptoms yet have an abnormal MRI scan of their brain, and others who have peculiar symptoms that mimic multiple sclerosis yet are caused by other closely related autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, multiple sclerosis has surpassed traumatic events (like motor vehicle accidents) and is now the most common neurological deficit among young people. Over 400,000 Americans and 2.5 million people worldwide have multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is an extremely complex and enigmatic chronic disease with no cure. Therefore, one can imagine how nerve wracking and daunting a simple referral is to a multiple sclerosis specialist, even before a diagnosis has been made. This app helps calm the many patients who are referred to a MS specialist who feel anxious and scared before their appointment. Furthermore, the app provides valuable insights into each step of the neurological examination and outlines key next steps to take after the appointment, including a general overview of multiple sclerosis and MS relapses. Ultimately, this app helps patients feel more in-control of their health appointment.
Pre-Meet: Multiple Sclerosis also provides a solution to a major problem in today’s healthcare system: patients being unprepared for their medical appointment. The contents of the app were drawn from real life situations of patients showing up to appointments widely late without necessary medical records and results. This is at no fault to the patient as often the patient was never informed about the items necessary to bring, when to arrive at their appointment, or the status of the records they previously sent. A common example of this is a patient traveling multiple hours to their appointment with a multiple sclerosis specialist, thinking their MRI scans were sent to the specialist by their primary care provider, only to find out the scans never reached the specialist while sitting in the doctor’s office. Without an MRI scan, a doctor cannot make the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis causing the patient to have to make another appointment and return to the clinic at a later date. Pre-meet: Multiple Sclerosis saves a patient from such an unproductive healthcare appointment, which wastes both time and money. When patients are informed, clinics can run more efficiently and patients have more productive and positive healthcare experiences.
The fact of the matter is, an uninformed patient is highly common throughout our entire healthcare system. That is why Pre-Meet: multiple sclerosis is the first app of a “Pre-Meet” series that will address the specific ways to prepare for a variety of specialty medical appointments like neurology, dermatology, cardiology, etc. Designed by specialists within each field, the content of these apps will include crucial information patients need to know before, during, and after their appointment that cannot be found online.