Therapeutic wandering is a real public health issue, faced by the 23 million French people suffering from at least one chronic disease. Faced with this problem, Wefight, a French connected health company, has developed an escape game, which allows you to live an immersive experience, in the shoes of a patient. Explanations.
From diagnostic wandering to therapeutic wandering
Wefight has chosen two chronic pathologies which each affect several million French people, asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, to talk regarding a subject that is often little publicized, therapeutic wandering. What is it exactly?
In chronic diseases, more often than in acute pathologies, patients can be confronted with two types of wandering:
- In the first place, diagnostic error;
- Secondly, therapeutic wandering.
Both have consequences on the care of the patient and on his quality of life. Diagnostic wandering, that is to say the fact of being sick without having a precise diagnosis for a certain period of time, would affect half of the patients suffering from rare diseases of genetic origin. For some pathologies, in particular autoimmune pathologies, patients can remain for several long years, before the cause of their symptoms is determined.
Several factors at the origin of therapeutic wandering
Diagnostic error is at the origin of a delay in diagnosis and therefore of a delay in treatment or poor adaptation of treatment. But once the diagnosis has been made, patients with a chronic illness can find themselves faced with a second wandering, therapeutic wandering. This time, the patient knows the name of his disease, but he experiences different difficulties in his care pathway. Therapeutic wandering brings together different aspects:
- Difficulties accessing care for geographic and/or financial reasons;
- The lack of efficacy or tolerance of certain treatments in some patients (poor response to treatment or adverse effects);
- Treatment adherence issues (denial of the disease, fear of treatments, etc.) and compliance.
All these aspects must be spotted, identified and taken care of by the healthcare teams. For example in breast cancer, if 87% of women continue hormone therapy following one year, only 50% of patients are still taking their treatment following four years. However, hormone therapy must be completed, that is to say 5 years, to effectively prevent the risk of cancer recurrence.
An escape game to put yourself in the shoes of a patient
Therapeutic wandering is a subject still very little discussed within the medical and scientific community and with patients. However, it is crucial to take into account to optimize patient care and thus allow him to have the best possible quality of life with his disease. Wefight has developed an escape game, which allows the user to put themselves in the shoes of a patient with asthma or COPD.
Through this immersive experience, users discover the daily lives of patients and the solutions that can help them. Being better informed regarding his disease, its mechanisms, its consequences and regarding the available treatments, allows the patient to better accept them and therefore to better respect the doctor’s prescriptions. The doctor and the pharmacist are two key links in identifying therapeutic wandering and implementing the necessary actions. Going further, patients can also download the Vik apps, developed by Wefight for 17 chronic conditions, including asthma and COPD.
Estelle B., Doctor of Pharmacy
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