Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease of the central nervous system that progresses fast and leads to impairment of movements, but also speaking, swallowing and breathing.
ALS damages the nerves in a way that the muscles they operate can’t be used anymore. The condition is not curable and progresses usually fast. The average survival time is only 3.5 years.
The onset of this disease is gradual and shows only few specific symptoms. A first sign is an increasing decline of the small hand muscles; however it usually does not lead to loss of power, so patients may not be aware. Only at a later stage, when about 50% of the nerves are damaged, involuntary muscle cramps occur, especially in the legs. Upon further progression of nerve damage, patients will suffer from difficulties in speaking and swallowing. Breathing becomes increasingly difficult as well.
Unfortunately there is no treatment for the cause of ALS, only the symptoms can be reduced. This includes physiotherapy and speech therapy, to enable the patients to live a generally independent life. Medication can be used to treat muscle cramps, and if a patient chokes too much, a tube for artificial nutrition can be considered. As the nerve damage also causes difficulties in breathing, machine ventilation becomes necessary in almost all cases.
Several years of work in academia, medical practice and finally commercialization make it possible to provide an end-to-end process to help users to “find the appropriate medical help based on their present symptoms”. Below you will find a short explanation, showing you which part of the platform will help you best in finding the appropriate medical support.
Proceed as follows to enter your current symptoms.
Click on the appropriate body part on the picture. Select one/multiple symptoms corresponding to your complaint.
You can also add symptoms by typing your medical complaint in the search box and selecting the best matching suggestion.
Note: Your information will be kept anonymously.
Once you have selected all applicable symptoms, click the “analyze disease pattern”-button.
Accordingly, you will get a list of possible diseases and matching doctor categories who can further help you.
You can inform yourself about the possible diseases by reading the related information. But you can also return to the previous step and add more symptoms or delete already added ones to further narrow down your disease pattern.
Click on the desired doctor category to find a doctor who can help you.
If you are logged in with your profile, you will be displayed the appropriate doctors in your area. Otherwise you can enter an address in the “address” field and you will be displayed a doctor’s list around that specified address.
You will receive further information about the displayed doctors when you press on “details”.
Online bookable doctors in your area will be indicated with the notation “Book appointment” or “Book externally”, additionally they will be displayed on top of the list for your convenience.
Click on “Book appointment” to start the online appointment booking process with the desired doctor.
Please select an available appointment. “Green“ appointments are booked directly. “Red“ appointments need to be confirmed by the doctor.
Enter your general personal and health information.
Enter your present medical symptoms.
Enter your mobile phone number to identify yourself and you can finalize the appointment booking.
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