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The Company History
PatienTree Inc. was incorporated in Florida, December of 2002. The co-founders, Robert "Bob" Letzeisen and his brother Thomas, had both experienced the U.S. healthcare system over an extended period of time. Bob is a recovered head and neck cancer patient who celebrated his 5 year wellness anniversary in 2002 on his birthday, and Tom unfortunately, on the same day, lost his 11 month battle with Pancreatic cancer. Out of these life changing experiences was born PatienTree, Inc.
During their own personal experiences, in the "bed" and as a family member
at the bedside, the two brothers began to examine and document a patient’s
life. As one can imagine, while witnessing the caregiver regiment, a large
number of improved efficiency opportunities surfaced. In concert with these
findings they also became acutely aware of the challenges that all patients
typically have in common.
As patients, the brothers discussed their varying levels of frustrations
with their environment. As any patient must endure, they found themselves
experiencing a number of common emotional responses. Boredom, anxiety,
isolation, loneliness, fear, and a frightening awareness of a lack of
information was the normal day spent in their respective facilities. As
most patients await any family visitor and most importantly their attending
physician, in hopes that new encouraging news would be delivered,
they remained focused on their illness which bred additional emotional
response less then conducive to wellness. Even when the physician arrived,
in many cases, the patient would hear those dreaded words, "I have not seen
the test result yet" or "I need to check with Dr. Smith to determine his
findings and see what he has concluded." Opportunity lost - through a
lack of a streamlined information delivery conduit where it is needed most,
at the patient bed. Caregivers were consistently left without real time
access to critical data.
Now with the opportunity to discuss the topic from two view points, patient
and family, the founders began to dissect each emotional response they were
experiencing. This further examination of what transpires in a patient’s
and family members life during a hospital stay allowed the two brothers to
determine a desperate need for "normalcy" for both parties while enduring
each of their respective roles.
In the case of the patient, in the example of Thomas, his critical needs
all seemingly were tied to a need for information. He wanted and needed
data pertaining to his illness from all aspects. Diagnosis, Prognosis,
proven treatments, clinical trials, medication, tests, insurance
reimbursement guidelines, and statistics. He wanted and needed to validate
treatments and medications
that were being prescribed were indeed the best available to him. In other words,
becoming his own physician as many of us would do in similar circumstances.
In addition, the patient was consistently anxious over other personal
topics, needs and desires. These areas were normally fulfilled through
technology tools or people that had become common in his life. Many key
ones typically not available within the confines of the hospital are the
Internet, email, newspapers, books, and more importantly, personal
interaction with clients, peers, and family.
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