Apple Platform Gives New Meaning to “Having a Voice in Your Healthcare”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Dallas, September 1, 2015 – College students are heading back to school. Technology now allows students the ability to protect their voices in their own healthcare, all through an iPhone app and website that allow users to capture their thoughts regarding the care they would want to receive in the event of an accident where they cannot speak for themselves. The app also allows users to identify the people who they would want to speak for them in such a situation.
For students, MyDirectives MOBILE means they can engage in advance care planning and independence – and give their parents a sense of relief that they are planning ahead.
No one should have to wonder if they will receive the treatments they would want, or who will speak for them in the event of a health emergency; this video explains how the app makes identifying a healthcare agent simple.
As college students move away from home, the MyDirectives iPhone app empowers them to record and make accessible the healthcare information they choose to share. Users’ healthcare treatment priorities are accessible even when an iPhone is locked, to ensure that people’s voices are always heard, no matter what the case.
“Healthcare reform is happening so quickly and so pervasively in our society,” said MyDirectives CEO Jeff Zucker, “but much of it is behind-the-scenes from the general public. We are thrilled we’re able to use our technology to help people with an everyday concern: how to be in contact if there’s an emergency far away.”
Mindy Berkson, a MyDirectives user who is sending her twins off to college this week, said, “Knowing that I can be easily reached in case of an emergency is crucial. It took a terrible car accident with my older daughter to teach me this valuable lesson. Not being able to gather information from the emergency room made the two-plus hour drive to her seem like an eternity.”
MyDirectives MOBILE is an extension of MyDirectives.com, the critically acclaimed all-digital emergency, critical and advance care planning platform. An emergency, critical and advance care plan is a comprehensive document that can include elements of a living will, healthcare power of attorney and a person’s thoughts, goals and preferences related to his or her healthcare and specific medical treatments. A thorough plan, when accessible, can help people and their medical teams share important information about the individual’s healthcare. MyDirectives, with users in all 50 states and over 25 countries since going live in 2012, has been recognized by leading doctors, public officials, policy experts and consumer organizations for giving people a voice in their care.
Dr. Monica Williams-Murphy, a board-certified emergency physician at the University of Alabama Huntsville Hospital, where she also serves as the medical director for advance care planning and end-of-life education, said, “By giving people the ability to both create a comprehensive emergency care plan and populate it into their Medical ID with just a few taps, MyDirectives is transforming today’s healthcare. For a patient’s loved ones, there is nothing like hearing their wishes in their own words – which MyDirectives allows via the ability to upload videos – to know that you are making the right decisions at a time of crisis.”
The latest video from MyDirectives, the first completely free online advance care planning service, shows young people how they can do that via MyDirectives’ App. In a recent blog post, MyDirectives provides tips to students to help them get ready for school, including of course, creating an emergency medical plan.
MyDirectives’ leadership is also available for interview.
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MyDirectives®, a service of Dallas, Texas-based ADVault, Inc., is the first completely digital emergency, critical and advance care planning platform. MyDirectives MOBILE™ was launched in 2015. Additional information can be found at MyDirectives.com, Facebook.com/MyDirectives and Twitter.com/MyDirectives .MyDirectives was named by PC Magazine as one of the 100 best websites.
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Heather Cabral
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