There are two types of people in this world—those who are happy with the healthcare system and anyone who has ever needed to use the healthcare system. For many, the current model of healthcare is frustrating and, at its worst, negligent. People with chronic illnesses or rare diseases are hit especially hard by the gaps in our system.

The Problem With Healthcare

If you’re feeling sick or unwell the first challenge is finding a provider covered by your insurance (assuming you have insurance, if not good luck!). In small towns, this can be incredibly difficult with limited options and availability. Oftentimes, you must go through a gatekeeper—a primary care provider—before you can see a specialist. From there, the specialists are siloed creating a disconnect between different doctors of the same patient.

To anyone who hasn’t navigated the system, it may just seem like an inconvenience, but for the many people with an illness, this can be disheartening and even life-threatening. It’s not surprising more and more people are turning to holistic, integrative, even alternative medicine.

In 2020, the complementary and alternative medicine market was valued at $82.27 billion and is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 22.03% from 2021 to 2028. Alternative medicine can be an outlet for those disparaged by western healthcare systems, but without insurance helping to cover the costs it is a right reserved only for the wealthy. The whole system looked hopeless...until now.

The Patient Changing It All

Tyler Cohen Wood is a former Defense Intelligence Agency Cyber Deputy Division Chief and Senior Intelligence Officer, but a personal struggle with the healthcare system challenged her to put her tech background towards solving a national problem. In 2018, Cohen Wood began experiencing an array of different symptoms. After a year of doctors visits and seeing specialist after specialist, she was told it was all in her head and she needed to stop obsessing over it. Instead of giving up on herself she gave up on the medical industry and turned to alternative medicine.

Through various alternative medical practices, she was able to find temporary relief from her symptoms, but the hunt for a diagnosis continued. She returned to the long roster of doctors and made her way through until she found what felt like a miracle—someone who took her seriously. After years of searching for answers she was finally diagnosed with a rare disease most doctors would have no idea to even check for.

She is now treated by one of the top medical facilities in the nation, a privilege she recognizes most Americans would never have access to. Her long, ongoing battle with the medical industry inspired her to change the entire game.

The Solution For Accessible Healthcare

Cohen Wood spent her entire career in cybersecurity working with data and understanding the significance of the cyber world in our reality. She used her tech background to develop her idea for a better healthcare system into MyConnectedHealth, an A.I.-driven view of medicine.

Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, MyConnectedHealth will bring together a team of doctors from around the world and supply them with predictive medicine and diagnosis without sacrificing patient privacy. The program also compiles a patient's information into one central location to integrate all areas of medical specialty. The technology behind this new patient portal would be more expansive including western and eastern solutions to modern alignments and have a limitless range of medical knowledge.

Cohen Wood is proof of the concept herself. The A.I. behind MyConnectedHealth was able to diagnose her with her rare disease—so rare only 300,000 people in the United States have it. Using predictive patterns to analyze symptoms, then searching from its comprehensive medical database, and finally consulting with a team of global doctors, MyConnectedHealth surpassed the medical system that had failed her for years in a matter of minutes.

The best part is, it would make healthcare accessible to a much larger percentage of the global population. Those in developing nations would be able to seek advice without traveling thousands of miles to a healthcare provider. Mothers and fathers working two jobs to support their families with no time to slow down for a doctor visit and can now make time whenever they need to. By bringing our healthcare system up to speed and into the 21st century Cohen Wood offers a greater number of people a chance to live their healthiest lives. MyConnectedHealth is currently in the funding phase, but with an idea as disruptive as Cohen Wood’s, we are sure to see it hit the markets soon.

“There is nothing more isolating than being sick and not knowing why,” Cohen Wood explains as she reflects on her own experience. Her hope with MyConnectedHealth is to bring affordable, accessible healthcare to anyone who has felt left behind by our modern medical system.