Letterlife – Precision Health Through Co-creation of Digital Tools
Today, the number of people suffering from chronic health conditions is increasing, along with the societal associated costs. Unfortunately, mental health issues are no exception. And ADHD, a common and often lifelong condition, is one of the diagnoses rising fastest. Healthcare is thus facing gigantic challenges where a growing group demands limited resources.
As newly diagnosed with ADHD, much will revolve around making lifestyle changes to avoid serious consequences due to challenges inherited in the diagnosis.
The gap between the availability and demand for support and care is painfully evident in today’s healthcare system. Forcing a movement away from, rather than towards, precision health and patient-user-led collaborations.
Risks of Not Acting
It’s well described that undiagnosed and untreated ADHD is costly for both individuals and society.
Research shows that people with ADHD, without diagnosis and support, will live eight to thirteen years shorter than their peers of the same age, gender and socioeconomic status.
According to international health economic calculations, each undiagnosed and untreated person with ADHD costs society hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. With an ADHD prevalence of 5-9% among all children and 2-3% among all adults, it’s easy to comprehend how much society stands to gain by taking a long-term approach to this issue.
Our guess is that digital tools for enhanced self-care will play an important role in support and interventions for ADHD going forward.
Doing More with Less Resources?
Thus, the future holds knowledge about a growing group of children and adults living with an increased risk of negative health outcomes throughout their lives. We will never be able to meet this challenge the way healthcare is set up today.
However, scalable, digital tools created in creative collaboration between healthcare professionals, researchers, and patient representatives hold great promise.
New innovative ways to collect and use personal data, can relieve and free healthcare resources through increased patient involvement. And at the same time improve shared medical decision-making and health-related outcomes.
Precision Medicine is the Future!
Patients involved in their own care and who in real time assess and report their symptoms and progress can improve the precision and outcomes of their treatment.
With increased knowledge about their diagnosis and available evidence-based treatment options, people can take greater responsibility for their health.
That will become an ally in the care process and engage in effective and safe self-care.
Chronic health conditions often affect a person profoundly, but both symptoms and disabilities may vary greatly over time. To know which and when specific interventions are appropriate, the individual’s symptoms need to be monitored continuously.
Precision medical tools carry the potential for significant effects on multiple levels through improved clinical outcomes and freeing up healthcare resources for other groups. Especially if introduced early, along with other evidence-based treatments.
What is Letterlife?
Letterlife is the world’s first digital self-care tool for women with ADHD. And is designed to meet the needs and challenges we face today.
We address the gap between what healthcare sees as its responsibility and what the patient group describes they need.
It is created together with leading experts and dedicated patients. In addition, it is based on neuroscience and testimonies of hundreds of women who have, or suspect they have, ADHD.
Letterlife focuses on what women with ADHD themselves describe as their biggest problems, namely:
Feeling Different – In a safe and secure community, women with ADHD share their own experiences, gain inspiration, comfort and tips from others in the same situation.
Feeling Abandoned – In the knowledge and inspiration bank MindHub, women can educate themselves and build effective self-care. To be better prepared for their healthcare appointments through fact-checked knowledge and relevant tips.
Feeling Lost – By daily logging how hormones, medications and lifestyle factors are tied together they build self-competence and learn from their own insights.
We are convinced that precision health and support for self-care are the future. And that Letterlife has enormous potential to improve the quality of life and health outcomes for a large group of girls and women. A group who otherwise risk increasing the economic and resource pressure on the healthcare system.
By building on user influence and neuroscience research, we can improve clinical outcomes and relieve healthcare.
While at the same time empowering girls and women over their lives!
Lotta Borg Skoglund
MD PhD & Letterlife Co-founder
Latest posts