Grain Fertility is your fertility health information platform created to empower patients undergoing fertility treatment by giving you control of your health information.
1 in 8.
We know how many people will experience fertility issues in their lifetime. However, it is impossible to quantify the impact fertility and infertility issues have on us and our loved ones as we struggle to start or continue to build the family we want. The emotional toll of countless appointments, shots, failures, bloating, bleeding, more shots, stress, financial hardships, insurance denials, managing prescriptions, and other associated issues can be overwhelming. What if there was a way to even take some of these issues and make them easier to deal with?
However, it is impossible to quantify the impact fertility and infertility issues have on us and our loved ones as we struggle to start or continue to build the family we want.
During our fertility journey, my wife and I felt every one of these problems and more. To help stay organized, my wife started carrying a large 3 ring binder to different appointments to ensure all of her specialists knew her medical history. I kept thinking to myself, it really is amazing that we can bank, buy a house, book tickets to fly anywhere, or video chat with anyone across the globe from our phones, but it is nearly impossible to access all of your health information in one place when you need it. The goal of Grain Fertility is to change this.
Grain Fertility was born out of the idea that there has to be a better way for patients to access, utilize, and learn from their health information and medical bills. Data shows that patients who are more engaged in their care believe they will have better outcomes and more positive experiences interacting with healthcare professionals. At Grain Fertility, we believe that patients undergoing fertility treatment deserve the tools to experience more collaborative care, organize all of their information, and have access to trusted sources of information. Grain Fertility was not created to interfere with the doctor patient relationship, but augment it.
What is Grain?
You may be asking, why Grain? I took Latin in high school and have always had a soft spot for Greek and Roman mythology. Demeter or Ceres, depending on your flavor, is the goddess of harvest and agriculture presiding over grains and the fertility of the earth. Worshippers would make sacrifices and wish for bountiful harvests to the goddess, something anyone going through fertility treatment knows something about before each protocol starts. Grain has been associated with our own fertility journey throughout time. Finally, our health data is granular, spread out across the ecosystem in different silos and hard to find and even harder to use. Grain Fertility will help patients undergoing treatment take this previously siloed information and transform it into something greater, more bountiful, and useful.
I am setting out on a journey to build a health information platform designed by a fertility patient for fertility patients to change how patients think of their health information and medical bills. During this journey, I hope to meet and talk with patients, clinicians, professionals, and allies who no longer believe the status quo of health technology is acceptable. People who believe they have the right to access, use, and learn from their health information. People who strive to stress less about mundane organizational tasks necessary to properly account for the exorbitant costs associated with fertility treatment. People who want to focus on their fertility journey, wherever it may take them, rather than spending hours trying to track down their health records and dealing with fax machines and certified mail.
Grain Fertility will be a journey for all of us and like all journeys, it will take time. Grain Fertility will not be perfect or have every feature available immediately. However, I can promise several things from day one that will serve as the north star guiding development of the platform.
First off, there is no information more sensitive than your health information and because of this, Grain Fertility will use HIPAA compliant, industry-best data security practices and promises to protect sensitive health information. Users will have complete control of where and how their information is used and Grain Fertility will be one hundred percent transparent about data use practices.
Second, Grain Fertility is founded with a scientific advancement and advocacy-driven purpose. Grain Fertility will only partner with organizations and companies whose values align with ours and are actively advancing patient privacy, health equity, and infertility science. Grain Fertility will advocate for expanded access to fertility services across the country because we believe every individual should have equal access to fertility services.
Finally, I will always be responsive to the needs, concerns, and sensitivities of our users. Without you, Grain Fertility is nothing more than another administrative platform. Grain Fertility will always actively seek collaborative feedback from the fertility community and our allies to ensure we are upholding our mission.
I look forward to taking this journey with you and learning how to better serve those who are experiencing fertility issues. You can always reach out to me at info@grainfertility.com for anything, whether it is feedback, advice, or if you just need someone to talk to.
-
Joe Cody, Founder
Comments