Have you ever seen a romantic-comedy movie, searched for dating tips on Google, or heard the lyrics of several wedding-related first dance songs? If so, you perhaps know the trope: there is a soulmate for everyone out there. A soulmate is someone who represents your ideal counterpoint as well as who loves, lives, and views you similarly to others. In short, a soulmate is perfect for you.
Whether or not you feel that soulmates exist, the internet industry has simplified meeting prospective romantic partners for us. Due to network effects and matching algorithms, it has not been easier than this to meet prospective romantic partners.
What if that matchmaking type works in the healthcare industry? What if a way exists that allows you to discover and interact with others who face medical challenges that are identical to what you encounter? It could change your medical treatment journey a lot.
True Similarities Equal True Support When You Are On The Journey
Discovering and interacting with other people with health conditions sharing profiles comparable to your profile allows having a better picture of how your healthcare journey may progress. It could also make it possible for you to get the necessary emotional and social support that you may need. After all, nobody else can better tell you that they understand your condition than somebody who undergoes the same issue as yours.
There is more to similarity than just matching on the basis of a chronic health condition, though. It is similar to how effective romantic matching may be beyond just a common love for an actor or a common profession.
Imagine that a person aged 18 years is serious about their health and has ulcerative colitis. They perhaps lack a health experience that is identical to an older adult with that same health condition who drinks, smokes, and seldom exercises. The two people may have some similarities but are also likely to be different in other significant ways.
Therefore, healthcare matching should be done on the basis of beyond a single shared condition as well as should consider factors like lifestyle choices, demographic information, gender, background, and additional health issues. Only then will healthcare marketing be able to work. Doing that will cause any support level that is possible to be offered to the people to be more accurate and valuable.
A Tinder-Like Option For Human Health
A digital company in the healthcare industry that works at the forefront of healthcare matching technology is Alike Health. Similarly to the Tinder option for health, it matches patients having comparable profiles out of a big dataset of people. You can download Alike from Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Alike takes de-identified forms of data from digital medical records and then uses a matching system based on algorithms to compare people in the healthcare network. It also establishes scores of similarity between two people or nodes part of the network.
While Alike does something innovative with its matchmaking approach, the idea that underpins its work builds on the fact that all patients are not identical. Medicine works on the basis of the notion that human beings function identically. A product that would treat or cure only a single person would not be applicable to an entire population. Therefore, it would not be possible for medical researchers and doctors to learn details from people and apply those to broader groups of patients. Medicine may work for numerous people, but it does not make precision medicine less important.
For example, consider the well-documented significance of matching those who donate and receive organs or blood properly. Without matching them properly, a prospectively life-saving option of treatment is likely to become ineffective. Other examples are also available. A study from 2020 on rheumatoid arthritis patients discovered that five phenotypes existed in them, each with different symptoms, required treatments, and disease progression. If all those patients had been treated identically, medical professionals would have easily identified and treated their disease properly.
The Revolution In Healthcare Matching
In this world of artificial intelligence and big data, it is possible for humans to access health data about users to discover valuable insights. It should not be more challenging to meet your healthcare journey now than getting matched with prospective partners through a dating application. You can also compare the same to getting a streaming service recommend you a music album on the basis of your shared tastes in listening to music with other customers.
It is only the beginning of this revolution in the healthcare industry. However, some pioneers have already made a few amazing inroads into the healthcare matching area. It will have a profound effect on the healthcare results of people around the globe. It is a healthcare matching revolution, and we are living in it.