As the new year 2019 began, I found myself, like many other people, striving to stick to resolutions. These included exercise and more importantly, organization. I addressed my New Year goals by ambitiously organizing my personal health records. To this end, I became a beta tester and early adopter of the Seqster health records management platform. I hoped it would help me convert drawers full of notes into an organized, integrated and secure data record in the cloud.
My health records before Seqster
The photo below depicts my previous organization (or lack thereof). These are doctors’ notes, prescriptions, immunizations, lab results, etc. that I have collected over a couple of decades. For many of us, this is our only system of health records management.
My previous organization 
Seqster health records management to the rescue!
The thought of opening the drawer was intimidating enough to deter me from addressing the problem. Thankfully, Seqster came to my rescue. The Seqster health records management system is a cloud-based platform. It integrates multiple data types in one secure place. Such as electronic health records (EHR), genomics and fitness data. This gives patients a more comprehensive and easier-to-work-with view of their health data.
In a previous post, I documented my initial experience using the Seqster health records management platform to connect my medical information on a personal health record.
Continual improvement at Seqster
Since then, Seqster has improved. In particular, they now include intermediary DNA processing platforms like Promethease. Seqster’s graphics user interface (GUI) also continues to improve. They now offer options to view doctors’ notes as well as medical information in two ways.
I was an early adopter of the Seqster health records management system. I have worked collaboratively with their team not only to organize my own health records, but also to provide user input on how the platform can work better for autoimmune patients. In the early stages of using Seqster, I was disappointed that I could not click on specific appointments to view doctor’s notes. Nor could I see what tests had been reviewed during that appointment, since lab results were grouped independently from doctor appointments.
Seqster is a genie!
Therefore, I brought this issue to the attention of Seqster’s team, expecting to shout into the void without any real results. To my surprise, Seqster responded immediately that this feature was already on their roadmap. Moreover, they accelerated development after receiving my suggestion. Within a couple of weeks, Seqster granted my wish. This is the third time I have made a request from Seqster and the third time it has been fulfilled. Like a genie, their work is quite like magic. However, I do not think that I am limited to three wishes! I hope to continue to provide insightful user input as Seqster continues to build and improve their platform.
Seqster’s medical data platform allows users to view information on a timeline with a variety of filter combinations.
This new update streamlines searching for specific information. Also, by clicking on the “see details” button (image above) users can look further into the doctor appointment to see what happened on that particular day.
Their high regard for user-testing and input makes me feel as if my voice matters. Moreover, as an advocate for the autoimmune community, I am always on the lookout for new products and services that will benefit patients. I strongly feel that as Seqster continues to make future changes, including self-uploading health record files from functional medicine doctors, autoimmune patients will be able to relay their personal health records more effectively, helping doctors diagnose diseases more efficiently.
#spoonies Have you ever been a user tester for an autoimmune related product or service?
Written by: Bonnie Feldman, DDS, MBA, and Hailey Motooka
