Overshadowed by the sensationalist nature of Charlie Sheen’s disclosure this week that he was HIV-positive, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise in the U.S. Rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis increased in 2014 for the first time since 2006, the CDC said.
More than half of new STD infections are among people younger than 25, according to the report, a group that are big into mobile technology. The CDC said that many are not getting tested, and thus don’t even know that they have a communicable disease.
Among those who are getting tested, it can be a long wait to get results back, particularly if the test is negative; clinics often ask patients to call in themselves after a week to 10 days. “The status quo is that no news is good news,” said Ramin Bastani, CEO of Healthvana, a Los Angeles-based startup that delivers STD test results and follow-up information to patients electronically.
Using Informed Awareness to Transform Care Coordination and Improve the Clinical and Patient Experience
This eBook, in collaboration with Care Logistics, details how hospitals and health systems can facilitate more effective decision-making by operationalizing elevated awareness.
“Instead of hearing, ‘No news is good news,’ you are told you get your test results in real time,” or at least as soon as the clinic hears back from the lab, Bastani said. Healthvana has sent about 150,000 results on behalf of its Healthvana clients — mostly dedicated STD clinics — in the last year, and more than 80 percent of recipients have opened the messages within one day, according to Bastani.
“We get incredibly high patient engagement,” he said, mostly because the service helps relieve the anxiety of having to wait. Bastani said that clients, predictably, have seen their volume of phone calls drop off markedly. “If you’re anxious about a test result, you’re going to keep calling,” he noted.
Patients can choose to receive notifications of results by e-mail, text or mobile app. In the interest of privacy, they have to login to a secure site or app to see the actual report.
Recipients get more than just raw data. Healthvana, which has positioned itself as a “patient engagement platform,” delivers educational material in context of the results and, in the case of a positive test, tells patients what the next step is for them and their sexual partners and helps them make a follow-up appointment with the clinic or a primary care physician. “All you care about is, ‘Am I OK?'” after testing positive for an STD, Bastani said.
The Impact Brands: Empowering Wellness Through Natural and Holistic Solutions
In an era of escalating healthcare costs and a growing preference for natural, holistic approaches to health, The Impact Brands emerges as a collective of diverse brands dedicated to supporting overall wellness through natural means.
Healthvana shifted from a direct-to-consumer model to a B2B strategy about a year and a half ago, and that move has pushed the five-year-old company into the black, Bastani said. The company soon hopes to expand beyond STD testing into supporting other chronic diseases, he added.
