Help a Billion People with TREATMENT SCORES

“The best way to become a billionaire is to help a billion people.” - Peter Diamandis. Peter Diamandis is the founder of the XPrize and a serial entrepreneur.[1] Now we have a way to help a billion people. We have Treatment Scores.

Here’s why you need them:

1. Almost no one understands the net absolute treatment benefit (studies prove this)
2. Treatment Scores save time
3. Treatment Scores will save money (tens of billions of dollars globally)
4. They solve the “unsolvable treatment transparency” problem
5. They solve the “unsolvable quality assurance” problem
6. They are disruptive from the bottom up
7. They are scalable
8. They are deliverable to smart phones
9. They will help 7.3 billion people

What TreatmentScores.com does, and what we blog about at TreatmentScoresBlog.com, is help people review the medical literature and quantify the net absolute treatment benefit for the patient, which we call the “Treatment Score” for simplicity.

How many people will Treatment Scores help? Approximately all 7.3 billion people on the planet, not to mention all healthcare professionals, educational institutions, health related non-profits, health related businesses, and all governments around the world involved with healthcare.

If you are a student of macroeconomics, you know that quantification disrupts every industry it touches. Finally, medical treatments are going to be quantified!

Medicine and business can go together for the greater good. Few people know better than physicians the partial truth in the old saying, "If you have your health, you have everything." Physicians and nurses see more people deteriorate from old age and other medical problems until the life drains out of them than most people do.

Almost everyone knows the partial truth in the old saying, "Do what you love." In theory, if you do what you love everything else will fall into place.

Put these sayings together and you get Treatment Scores, Inc. Many people are passionate about helping other people, and also about doing evidence-based medicine. People love using science for good.

Why should this be a business? Why should TreatmentScoresBlog.com and TreatmentScores.com be businesses? Because Treatment Scores "cure severe pains" for consumers, educators, researchers, businesses, and governments.

Malay Gandhi, a venture capitalist at Rock Health says, “We are looking for ‘physician-first’ companies that build tools beloved by doctors. The sad fact is, doctors enjoy medicine less and less each day and dissatisfaction has never been higher. …..Enabling the provision of higher quality care is the number one driver of job satisfaction and your product must start there. Obvious bonus points here for enabling personalized health care at the point of care.”[2]

Why hasn’t this been done before?
The problem is that no one understands treatments. The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute says, “Every day, patients and their caregivers are faced with crucial health care decisions while lacking key information that they need.” We need to translate “…existing scientific research into accessible and usable formats…”[3]

A recent study of 531 physicians found that over 80% of physicians could not correctly interpret two treatment effects from a medical study.[4] This means that 80% to 100% of patients probably can’t figure out treatments either.

Why is it so hard to figure out treatments? It’s because the math problem is ridiculously complex. You often need to organize over 10,000 pieces of information, and there is almost always missing data. Almost every statistic is a flawed statistic. Routinely, any two statistics on the exact same outcome can almost never be weighted equally. Conversion factors are missing. Essentially, every variable has another variable!

We have the Treatment Score Analyzer™, because the solution is figuring out the net absolute treatment benefit for the patients who have been studied already. That’s a mouthful, so we call it figuring out the “Treatment Scores.”

Dr. Richard Fogoros, a cardiologist, wrote: “This analysis shows what seems like a pretty good way to make some big bucks in healthcare while simultaneously saving lives: Figure out how to empower patients. Any enterprise that can supply patients with clear, correct, relevant, personal, and specific knowledge that enables them to protect themselves and their loved ones…will endear itself to…patients. Furthermore, anyone supplying such knowledge will be feeding a growing need for more. People's desire for the information to manage their own healthcare and the means to act on that information will become more than just a desire—it will become an expectation. A massive business opportunity awaits.”[5]

The problem for patients is that the medical literature is in a huge, dark, underground cavern containing over 22.5 million disorganized medical studies. It’s difficult to get into the cave, and after getting down there the medical vocabulary is incomprehensible and the statistics are next to impossible. Even the most highly skilled patient cannot overcome all these obstacles and the “avalanche of big data.” Every once in a while, a physician (or other expert - perhaps you) enters the cave, shines a flashlight into the darkness, and comes out to explain a few medical studies to a patient. Then, it all goes dark again. Our Treatment Score Analyzer™ goes into that huge dark cavern, wires it with electricity, and turns the lights on forever.

Migraine Headache
There are at least 57 treatments for an acute migraine headache. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what the medical literature says the treatment benefit is for all those treatments? Ask your healthcare provider: “What is the Treatment Score for Imitrex (sumatriptan) for an acute migraine headache?” They probably will have no idea. Ask them: “What is the Treatment Score for ginger powder for an acute migraine headache?” They will probably have no idea. (Sometimes alternative medicines have data and sometimes they don’t, but all we care about is the data.) What about the Treatment Scores for cancer treatments? We need to know!

Insomnia
You can find over 130 treatments for insomnia on the Internet. Ask your healthcare provider: “How many of those treatments are grade A?” Or ask them, “What are the Treatment Scores for all those treatments?” The problem is that there is no useful quantification of the “net absolute treatment benefit” for the patients studied in the past. With Treatment Scores we can fix this.

Quantification, once achieved, will change the world for the better. It will be disruptive for medical education, for all 7.3 billion potential consumers of healthcare, for all healthcare related nonprofits, for all healthcare related businesses, and for all governments around the world that participate in healthcare. Many medical disasters have happened because of the lack of quantification: frontal lobotomies, the epidemic of unnecessary hysterectomies, knee surgeries that did not work, and medications for heart arrhythmias that turned out to be killing people.

Medical Reviews
Physicians, and all other medical professionals, generally love to help people, and they love to review the medical literature, because it is fascinating, because they love science, and because reviewing what happened to patients in the past is how we learn. Medical reviews are the starting point for evidence-based medicine and shared decision-making. “Quantified medical reviews” with Treatment Scores, will be the next step in the evolution of big data and statistics.

“Quantified medical reviews” of treatments can be combined with clinical experience moving forward.

Why will Treatment Scores help so many people? A “better system” can help more people than any one person can ever help in their lifetime working alone. Physicians already do Journal Clubs, Grand Rounds, Morbidity & Mortality Conferences, and Continuing Medical Education. They are lifelong learners. But what if learning could be taken to the next level with quantification of treatments? That would be a game changer.

Bill Gurley, a Venture Capitalist at Benchmark, has tweeted that for healthcare he wants disruptive technology without onerous regulatory hurdles.[6] It is important to start the revolution like Treatment Scores is doing, without needing a 100 million dollars for step by step clinical trials.

Think how Uber has changed the world. I read an article where someone said Uber did not build new taxis, Uber did not build new infrastructure, Uber simply reorganized what already existed. That’s what we’re doing with Treatment Scores.

I have read many articles about Airbnb. Airbnb did not build new hotels. They reorganized what already existed so that everyone could participate. That’s what we’re doing with Treatment Scores. We are bringing evidence-based medicine to the masses.

Uber may be worth 50 billion dollars. Airbnb may be worth 25 billion dollars. Companies can change the world by reorganizing it with software. Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist, famously wrote: "In short, software is eating the world."[7]

Treatment Scores are designed to help people. They will mean better transparency in healthcare. They will help the people that need help the most: the sick, the dying, and the disabled.

Physicians have set up Treatment Scores, Inc. as a vehicle to attract other physicians, and other evidence-based medicine “connoisseurs” such as health writers and bloggers. We want to create international interest in quantifying the science of medicine behind medical treatments. We want people who are seeking a higher purpose.

There are many important buzzwords and phrases being floated around about how to improve medicine. Things like: evidence-based medicine, shared decision-making, treatment transparency, personalized medicine, patient mentoring, patient engagement, participatory medicine, patient-centered care, and patient-generated research. Treatment Scores can make all these things actually happen instead of just being theoretical.

I love the E-patient movement and the “Spoonie” chronic pain patient movement. Treatment Scores can give these movements the tools they need to make a huge difference in people's lives.

Contact:
I’m not motivated by a billion dollars, but I do have an obsession, an all-consuming desire to figure out the net benefit of treatments. Please email me at: Dr.Hennenfent ((at)) Gmail.com if you want to help with Treatment Scores. (See the disclaimers below.)

Follow Treatment Scores:
AngelList:
https://angel.co/treatment-scores
Twitter:
https://Twitter.com/TreatmentScores
Facebook:
https://Facebook.com/TreatmentScores
Blog:
http://TreatmentScoresBlog.com
Website:
http://TreatmentScores.com

Links to Previous Blog Articles:
"Mobile Health Desperately Needs Treatment Scores: Health Information Technology"
http://www.treatmentscoresblog.com/2015/12/mobile-health-desperately-needs.html

"Is Bromelain from Pineapples a Miracle Cure for Cancer? Treatment Scores.”
http://www.treatmentscoresblog.com/2015/12/is-bromelain-from-pineapples-miracle.html

"Lunesta for Insomnia in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Treatment Scores"
http://www.treatmentscoresblog.com/2015/12/lunesta-for-insomnia-in-patients-with.html

DISCLAIMERS:
You must consult your own licensed physician, or other licensed medical professional, for diagnosis, treatment, and for the interpretation of all medical statistics including Treatment Scores. Treatment Scores are for educational purposes only. Treatment Scores may be incomplete, inaccurate, harmful, or even cause death if used for treatment instead of consulting a licensed medical professional. No medical advice is being given. We DO NOT CLAIM to cure, treat, or prevent any illness or condition. Nor do our services provide medical advice or constitute a physician patient relationship. Contact a physician or other medical professional if you suspect that you are ill. Call emergency services (call 911 if available) or go to the nearest emergency room if an emergency is suspected. We are not responsible for any delays in care from using our website, our services, or for any other reason. We are not responsible for any consequential damages of any nature whatsoever. We make no warranties of any kind in connection with our writings or the use of TreatmentScoresBlog.com or TreatmentScores.com. Treatment Scores are about what happened to patients studied in the past; they do not predict the future.

Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Treatment Scores, Inc.

References:
[1]Peter Diamondis was quoted by INC. December 2014/January 2015. P. 40.

[2]“Ideas We’d Like to Fund.” November 10, 2014. https://rockhealth.com/ideas-wed-like-fund-2/

[3]“Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Funding Announcement: Communication and Dissemination.” PCORI. Published May 22, 2012, Revised September 17, 2012, P. 7. Accessed December 1, 2012,  http://www.pcori.org/assets/FINAL-PFA-Communication-and-Dissemination-v3.pdf

[4]“Do clinicians understand the size of treatment effects? A randomized survey across eight countries.” By Bradley C. Johnston, PhD, et al.
http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2015/10/26/cmaj.150430

[5] Richard M. Fogoros, M.D., Fixing American Healthcare, 2007, Publish Or Perish DBS, Pittsburg, page 31.

[6] Bill Gurley on Twitter. https://twitter.com/bgurley/

[7] Why Software Is Eating The World, by Marc Andreessen. Wall Street Journal. August 20, 2011. Accessed December 23, 2015.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460

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