EmpowerMent

Inspiration

I met Ms. M while working in the psychiatry outpatient clinic. She was “feeling horrible” for the past month and reported difficulties with sleeping, a 15-lb loss in weight, and a decision to quit her book club. Ms. M admitted that her husband was cheating on her, and she had contemplated suicide. She felt that she was alone. Aside from listening to her story and empathizing with her, prescribing her a trial of antidepressant, and scheduling a follow-up appointment, I wished that I could have done more especially since I’ve worked with patients who had similar previous experiences. I wanted her to know that she wasn’t alone. This patient interaction was a huge inspiration in the creation of EmpowerMent.

What it does

EmpowerMent is a smartphone and web application that helps to connect patients who have overcome depression (mentors) with patients who are currently diagnosed with depression (mentees). The quality of mentors is high for our service as the mentor’s physicians refer them to the program. The app matches mentors and mentees based on similarities (i.e. life situation) and preferences from both parties.

Challenges we ran into

We spent hours conducting research to identify a problem and brainstorming solutions as we wanted to create a product that could really make an impact in the healthcare field, especially in enhancing patient experience and outcome and decreasing healthcare costs. We settled on creating a patient mentorship program for those who have been diagnosed with depression. The economic burden of depression alone — including workplace costs, direct costs and suicide-related costs — was $210.5 billion in 2010. This mental health disorder also affects a large proportion of Americans. 1 in 13 Americans over the age of 12 is diagnosed with depression and there are many more who go undiagnosed. In particular, 12.9% of women between the age of 40 and 59 are diagnosed with this condition (CDC). Clearly a huge problem, it seemed obvious to help patients diagnosed with this disease with healing and improvement in their quality of life through an effective evidence-based mentorship program.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We made both a web and iOS application. We are also really proud of the structure of our service. We are different from communication services because we emphasize the one-on-one mentor-mentee connection and the quality of mentors, who are referred by physicians.

What we learned

Many people in America are affected by depression and depression is associated with significant healthcare needs, school problems, loss of work, and earlier mortality. We also learned that there is great power in a mentor-mentee relationship of people who have gone through something similar. In a randomized controlled study done by Yale University, researchers found that patients who have been hospitalized in the past for depression when paired with a mentor had a 41.8% decrease in hospital visits and a 47.2% decrease in their average hospital length of stay.

What's next for EmpowerMent

EmpowerMent is dedicated to harnessing the power of the mentor-mentee relationship. Next steps include opening up the service to connect patients with other health conditions such as cancer, chronic diseases such as Type 1 Diabetes, and even family members taking care of people affected by a medical condition.