If you recall, I recently started participating in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps Program, which seeks to bring scientific inventions from idea to venture capital investment. After an intense, 3-week training, networking, and interviews program called “Starting Blocks”, I’m happy to report that we are still on the right track!
We interviewed fifteen people who were or are suffering with a chronic illness to find out how they navigated their healing journey. Their responses confirmed that they believed they spent way too much time and way too much money trying to figure out their next best steps. Going the Western health care route was almost always ineffective to help them manage their symptoms or cure their diseases. Many paid out of pocket to access other types of health care like Eastern medicine or Alternative medicine.
Their experience trying to get a diagnosis, prevent further harm, manage their symptoms, or cure the root cause of their chronic illnesses ranged according to the following table.
Low end
6 months
40 hours
hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket (plus insurance)
Gave up trying
Increased from a 1 out of 5 to a 2 out of 5
Category
Healing Journey Duration
Time Spent Searching for Answers
Money Spent Searching for Answers
Will to Continue Pursue Healing
Gains in Health Literacy
High End
17+ years
hundreds of hours
$50,000+ out-of-pocket (plus insurance)
More motivated than ever to get answers
Increased from a 1 out of 5 to a 5 out of 5
It was moving to hear their stories and inspired me to continue to pursue this interview-based recommender service so that their research time could get significantly shortened in the future.
A big THANK YOU to everyone who was willing to spend time with me on these interviews. Your support and insight are invaluable!
-Tenay Benes
Benes Companies 
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