“What’s the most effective way you’ve found to communicate your family’s unique health needs to healthcare providers? How has this improved your family’s care?”
Create your own “chart” to help manage their care
Especially when caring for family members with extra needs, such as older adults with memory issues, it’s incredibly helpful to create your own “chart” to help manage their care. This document should be shared with everyone who has a role to play in the family member’s care, and be updated after each doctor visit. It should include prescriptions, appointment schedules, contact information, and potentially even billing details.
Wynter Johnson, CEO, Caily
Prioritizing routine medical and dental history
Open exchange of your family’s medical issues improves your care. Start with prioritizing routine medical and dental history before scheduling appointments. Include things like past procedures, medications, allergies, and how you usually react to treatment. When providers know your history, they make better choices and avoid delays or problems.
This is especially important in dentistry. Those patients who report their history of previous care, lack of comfort, or difficulty healing give guidance to the provider. This leads to more accurate planning and better results, whether it be for routine care or more complicated care such as implants or full restorations.
Being an engaged visitor builds a tighter relationship with your care team. When providers understand your needs, they adjust care to suit you. This shortens recovery, lowers stress, and improves results.
Dr. Avi Israeli, Co-Founder and Dental Implantologist, Sage Dental NJ
Created a shared note on our iPhones for the family outlining her conditions
I have a loved one with complex health issues who has required emergency care. Timely and clear communication with the medical teams has been critical to her outcome. To support this, I created a shared note on our iPhones for the family outlining her conditions, key dates and medications in a concise, bulleted format- ensuring each family member has immediate and accurate access during emergencies or doctor visits.
Jen Carmichael, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, My Front Porch
Beginning with what is most important to us: our values
The best method I’ve learned for sharing my family’s health requirements is by beginning with what is most important to us: our values. We frame discussions about healthcare with clarity, trust, and partnership in mind. Rather than presenting a symptom or worry laundry list, we begin with context, how we would define well-being as a family, what puts us under stress, and what type of support we know works best for us.
By sharing our values early, we’ve built stronger relationships with our providers. They listen more closely, ask better questions, and consider care plans that include our mental health, lifestyle, and emotional needs. This broader perspective has improved continuity and led to more tailored, effective treatment.
We’ve also seen the value of consistent language and messaging, especially when coordinating with multiple specialists. We make our expectations around transparency clear and ask for the same in return. This has built trust and clear expectations on both sides.
It’s also helped us shift from reactive care to a more proactive and coordinated approach. Providers know our baseline and can pick up on when things change. It’s also enabled us to prevent unnecessary interventions by targeting root causes instead of presenting symptoms. In all interactions, we’re working to create a therapeutic alliance, not simply receive a service. That attitude has boosted our outcomes.
Steven Buchwald, Managing Director, Manhattan Mental Health Counseling
The Life Backup Plan app
One of the most effective ways we’ve found to communicate our family’s unique health needs to healthcare providers is through the Life Backup Plan app, which offers two key tools that work together: a structured medical profile and a flexible, real-time Life Log. These features give providers a more complete, contextual understanding of a person’s health — which can be lifesaving in both routine care and emergencies.
The medical profile section allows users to input critical baseline health information, including blood type, medical conditions, allergies, and dietary restrictions. This core data is often scattered across intake forms or EHR systems — but with Life Backup Plan, it’s stored in one secure location and can be instantly shared with emergency contacts or healthcare professionals at the user’s discretion. This eliminates the risk of forgotten or misunderstood medical history, especially for those managing multiple conditions or seeing different specialists.
In addition to the static medical profile, the app also includes a Life Log — a journaling-style feature that enables users to track dynamic, day-to-day factors that may influence health. Entries can include sleep patterns, mood, exercise, food and beverage intake, medication adherence, symptoms, and environmental exposures. This allows families and healthcare providers to observe emerging patterns, triggers, or reactions that might otherwise be missed. Over time, it builds a personalized timeline of wellness that adds nuance to clinical decision-making.
What makes both of these tools so impactful is their shareability. A caregiver, physician, or emergency responder can be granted secure access to the most current information, giving them a clearer picture and helping them make faster, more informed decisions. This has been particularly helpful in our family when managing chronic conditions, post-surgical recovery, or simply coordinating care across multiple providers.
By combining structured health data with real-time lifestyle context, Life Backup Plan turns communication into collaboration — helping prevent serious complications, improving continuity of care, and delivering peace of mind to everyone involved.
Sandy Eulitt, CEO and Founder, Life Backup Plan by Galacxia, Inc.
Hand Your Doctor a One-Page “Family Health Story”
The most effective way to communicate your family’s unique health needs is to create a concise, one-page “Family Health Story” and hand it to the provider at the beginning of every appointment. This simple document is more powerful than any verbal history because it transforms the entire dynamic of the visit from a stressful monologue into a productive dialogue.
In my work with families, I’ve seen them struggle to recount complex histories in a time-crunched visit, often forgetting crucial details. I worked with a mother whose son had both severe ADHD and a panic disorder. To the school, his outbursts looked like defiance; to the pediatrician, it was just ADHD. In reality, his panic was the trigger. We created a one-page summary for him that included: a short timeline of his diagnoses, a list of his triggers versus his ADHD behaviors, and the family’s primary goal: “Help us manage his fear so he can succeed at school.”
This simple document was a game-changer. For the first time, all his providers saw the full picture instantly, without the parent having to anxiously retell the story each time. It improved his care by ensuring treatment was integrated, targeting the root anxiety instead of just the visible behavior. It made the family feel heard and empowered, turning them into respected partners in their son’s care and finally putting everyone on the same team.
Ishdeep Narang, MD, Child, Adolescent & Adult Psychiatrist | Founder, ACES Psychiatry, Orlando, Florida
Creating a clear, written health history and wellness profile for each family member
One of the most effective ways I’ve found to communicate our family’s unique health needs is by creating a clear, written health history and wellness profile for each family member. This includes current medications, supplement protocols, known sensitivities (like gluten or dairy), past diagnoses, and even lifestyle habits like diet and stress levels. I also bring lab test results, food logs, and questions in advance to appointments, which helps guide a more productive, personalized discussion with the provider. This proactive approach has significantly improved our care—doctors are better able to make informed decisions, reduce unnecessary prescriptions, and consider root causes instead of just symptoms. It also helps build trust and a collaborative relationship, especially when working with multiple specialists or switching providers.
Dr. Jonathan Spages, Doctor, Author, Advanced Natural Health Center
To keep a simple, organized health summary document for each family member
The best way I’ve found to communicate our family’s special health needs is to keep a simple, organized health summary document for each family member — almost like a mini medical resume. It includes medications, allergies, past diagnoses, specialist contacts and even specific preferences (like sensitivity to certain medications or communication challenges). Whenever we see a new provider or specialist I hand them a copy or email it ahead of time.
This has saved us from having to repeat the same long explanations and has helped avoid medical errors — especially with my child who has food allergies and a complicated medical history. One pediatrician even thanked us and said it helped him focus on care instead of trying to piece together our background from memory and scattered records.
It’s also opened up more collaborative conversations. Providers see we’re proactive and informed and that encourages a more respectful, team-based approach. I’ve found when you show up prepared you get taken more seriously — and the care reflects that.
Sovic Chakrabarti, Director, Icy Tales
Being clear, specific, and assertive
The most effective way I’ve found to communicate my family’s unique health needs to healthcare providers is by being clear, specific, and assertive. For example, when one of my family members had a complex medical issue, I made sure to outline their history, current symptoms, and any specific concerns in a concise written format before the appointment. I also ask questions upfront to ensure I understand their treatment plan fully. If I feel that my concerns are not being addressed, I don’t hesitate to ask for a follow-up meeting or a huddle with all members of the care team. This approach ensures everyone is on the same page and that nothing is overlooked. It’s made a huge difference in how quickly we can make informed decisions and has improved the quality of care my family receives.
Nikita Sherbina, Co-Founder & CEO, AIScreen