This all started when my son was diagnosed with Autism. Then another doctor diagnosed him with Sensory Processing Disorder. And a third doctor thought it was ADHD or Auditory Processing Disorder. Yet a fourth doctor said his challenges were coming from a rare genetic microduplication. All of these diagnoses happened in the span of six months. Each doctor had a new opinion, a separate diagnosis, and a wildly different idea of what my son's treatment path should be. Like all parents, I was confused by conflicting data, lost in a sea of differing opinions, and didn’t know where or who to turn to for help.
Eventually, I chose a path and made a plan. But even then I had no idea if I was headed in a good direction because I couldn’t manage all of the data I was getting from the 13 different specialists on our team. That’s when I decided I would take matters into my own hands and build a data management system. In addition to all of the appointments, there were emails, phone calls, text messages, and meetings required to connect and share the information between each of the doctors helping us.
Everything was entered in my spreadsheet, but the only data I had was my son’s, and even then I only had the data from when I began the project, not from the beginning of his diagnosis. I felt frustrated and powerless. How would I know if any of the treatments were working, and if they weren’t, what changes could we make to set my son up for success?
That’s when goLOTUS was born. I decided that tracking the data wasn’t enough, I needed to see it. So I put my 16 years of graphic design experience to work, and started talking to therapists and parents to create a solution that would help everyone, as well as improve the lives of all the professionals who had dedicated their lives to helping our kids.
The idea behind goLOTUS is simple. Everyone involved in a child’s treatment plan should be able to see their complete information set and track progress over time—including the parents. The information needs to be synthesized and made sense of, so that parents and professionals can help guide that child’s progress. It needs to be customizable, clear, and sharable across the entire treatment team so collaboration is not only possible, it’s encouraged. And most of all, everyone should be empowered by the system so they can spend less time managing information, and more time with the kids who need them.
Thank you for joining the goLOTUS team. We are thrilled to share this journey with you.
Sincerely,
Kelly Whitney, President & CEO
