Our Patient Spotlight Series allows us to share stories from people in our community who have used PocketHealth to make positive changes in their lives. <\/b>This week, we caught up with Dave, a cancer patient in Ontario who is using the service to better understand his condition and be more prepared for conversations with his physicians.<\/b><\/p>\n
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How did you learn about PocketHealth ?<\/b><\/p>\n
I have Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. I went in for a routine X-ray and while I was waiting, I noticed the PocketHealth poster. I thought, \u2018Well, that\u2019s interesting,\u2019 because when you go to see your oncologist, a lot of people don\u2019t understand what\u2019s going on. You don\u2019t have a lot of insight into your own disease as far as depth and severity. I signed up for PocketHealth and all my CT scans and MRIs and doctors\u2019 notes showed up in my account. I was able to sit down, read them and just take my time and absorb what was there. And not in a situation where I\u2019m with the doctor and I\u2019m worried about his time or when the next patient is coming in. I found it interesting and it helped me quite a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n How else was getting access to all your imaging helpful?<\/b><\/p>\n I saw scans I had going all the way back to 2013. I was able to look back and see what the doctors\u2019 notes were because I don\u2019t know if I was even told what they were at the time. It was nice to be able to look back and see what was said. Everything is going so fast when you\u2019re in an office and the doctor says, \u2018Do you have any questions?\u2019 You kind of go blank sometimes. It\u2019s just been dumped on you and you haven\u2019t had a chance to really think about it. Now I can go over my records at my leisure, absorb them and have my questions ready for the next time I see him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After looking at your imaging, did you feel like you knew more about what was going on with your disease?<\/b><\/p>\n Actually, yes. I had a liver embolization in November 2020, then again in January 2021 and again in March of that year. When I went in to see my doctor, the doctor said, \u2018Oh, your tumour shrank a little bit\u2019 \u2014 and I know it\u2019s a positive thing. But when I actually looked at those scans, I found out it shrunk by a whole centimetre. In my mind, it was better information than just hearing, \u201cOh, it shrunk.\u201d I think it\u2019s fantastic. It was something like $50 dollars for me to get PocketHealth and it\u2019s a great piece of mind.<\/span><\/p>\n As a result of what you learned, have you done anything different with regards to your care?<\/b><\/p>\n A little bit. But I think it\u2019s more the mental satisfaction that I get out of it. It takes the edge off. When you\u2019re leaving your doctor\u2019s appointment, everything has hit you all at once. Now you get a chance to see your results and actually understand what\u2019s happening. When you have cancer, your condition is always in the back of your mind. When you actually see on paper that things have changed, especially for the positive, it makes you feel better.<\/span><\/p>\n In your experience, what sort of patients or people do you think would get the most value out of a tool like PocketHealth?<\/b><\/p>\n