HealthTree 2.0 Pillar One: Personalized, Lifetime Support and Education

In lieu of the HealthTree 2.0 Launch Event announced yesterday morning, we wanted to share with you some of the exciting improvements that you will begin to see within our HealthTree Foundation for Acute Myeloid Leukemia. 

Our Foundation has grown significantly within the last three years, with many developed programs improving and even more successful programs being developed. 

The HealthTree 2.0 Model will consist of 3 core pillars into which all of our programs can be organized. 

We believe that by encouraging our community to interact with our programs through these three pillars, patients and caregivers alike will remain empowered, educated individuals who make important connections with their MDS community and participate in key research that leads to an MDS cure. 

Today, we will highlight the first pillar of the HealthTree 2.0 Model: Personalized, Lifetime Support and Education. 

The Purpose of Personalized, Lifetime Support and Education within the HealthTree Model

Several of our programs at HealthTree are geared towards personalized, lifetime support and education. We believe that by empowering MDS patients and their loved ones to learn all that they can about the disease, find specialists who stay on top of the latest and greatest, and become active partners in their care will both live longer and live a higher quality of life. 

In fact, we have seen that through the many patients and caregivers that we have helped along the way. 

When these empowered members of our community feel supported and have a trusted team to which they can ask their questions, there’s no limit to how involved and active they can be in their own care.

Blood cancer patient Jean Becker shares, 

“My first observation when engaging with HealthTree, was that it is patient-centered/focused,so I could access and understand information. 

The breadth and depth of resources as well as timeliness (current), is so helpful and supportive. No matter what my questions are, from testing to treatments, to side effects, I can always find answers, information, or a direction.

And if they aren't there, I can ask, and get answers. 

The community is so supportive. The range of experts and access to them, and their knowledge through the courses, or regular webinars, chapters, etc. has been crucial to my journey, as I feel prepared to advocate for myself and others with good information and data.” 

HealthTree Programs within Pillar One: Personalized Lifetime Support and Education 

HealthTree Podcast for MDS
Our podcast program, in which we interview MDS specialists about their open clinical trials and other hot topics in MDS, was the very first program within our foundation.

Jenny, HealthTree's Founder and CEO, as a patient herself, was having a hard time finding a clinical trial that she qualified for in her area. She decided to take things into her own hands and start interviewing doctors to make it easier for her and others like her to understand clinical trials and know how to sign up for one. 

New podcast episodes continue to be released, with many patients claiming this as their favorite educational program. 

HealthTree News for MDS
Part of providing personalized lifetime education includes publishing up-to-date, easy-to-understand information about the latest and greatest in MDS. On our news site, you can read articles about newly approved MDS medications, results of clinical trials, MDS patient stories, and much more. 

“The HealthTree Foundation programs have helped keep me up to date on the ever-changing landscape of treatments,” says blood cancer patient Angela Perez, “I can always count on HealthTree to have the latest news on the newest treatments and clinical trials available.”

HealthTree Webinars for MDS
Our MDS webinar program launched in October 2021. The program began in the midst of a global pandemic when many immunocompromised patients and their families had to remain at home. 

Different groups were created and called Chapters, in which people could search for webinars based on their interests, the current status of their disease, or their demographic. In MDS, we started broadly with an Adult MDS chapter and an MDS Caregiver chapter. In the future, we plan to open new chapters such as a stem cell transplant chapter, a childhood MDS chapter, and various MDS treatment-specific chapters. 

We are dedicated to providing personalized education through these webinars and inviting top experts to educate the community on the most crucial MDS topics. 

HealthTree University
Perhaps our most popular program, HealthTree University has drastically changed the way that the MDS community can educate themselves about complex MDS topics. 

The HealthTree University team interviews MDS specialists at conferences and other events to get their expert opinions on questions that matter to MDS patients. The original curriculum was developed by Cindy Chmielewski, a former teacher and blood cancer patient (and also Twitter queen @myelomateacher). 

HealthTree Patient Experience Team
In addition to education, we strive to provide support to each of our community members.

Our Patient Experience team, led by Ana Sahagun, consists of a patient navigation and medical navigation team.

The Patient Navigation team can help you find MDS resources, answer questions about our website, and troubleshoot any issues you may have. 

Our Medical Navigation team can help you answer questions that you have about MDS (although they cannot give medical advice), aid you in understanding what your personalized lab values mean, and provide insight on general MDS medication questions that you may have. 

You can contact them by emailing support@healthtree.org, or calling/texting +1 800 709 1113. 

HealthTree for MDS Website

The rest of our website includes many resources such as: 

• Financial Resources 
• Finding an MDS Specialist
• MDS 101 Pages

You can explore our website or contact our team if you are looking for specific resources.

Invitation to Participate in the Future of MDS

At HealthTree, we believe no one should have to face MDS alone.

We encourage you to utilize the programs within Pillar One to educate yourself, your loved ones, and find personalized, lifetime support as you go along your MDS journey. The next step is to become a part of the MDS cure by participating in HealthTree Cure Hub's MDS research.

You can learn about the new and improved HealthTree model, our goals, and how you can be involved in our upcoming HealthTree 2.0 event. Invite your friends & family and join us on October 23, 2023, to hear how you can get your best care and contribute to accelerating an MDS cure.  

Register for HT 2.0 Event