One single person, your whole team connected

How many times have you had to tell your story from the beginning? At the doctor's, at the specialist's, when requesting a test or when going back to collect the results.

Each repetition seems small, but together they weigh. The feeling appears that nobody has the complete photograph of your health and that coordinating your own care journey is, deep down, one more job you have to take on.

At SHOMMA we believe that caring for a woman's health also means lifting that burden off her.

That is why Patient Experience exists: a healthcare professional who becomes your point of reference from the first conversation through to the re-evaluation. Because health is not built solely from diagnosis and treatment. How you feel during the process also matters.

And since mind and body do not work separately, feeling accompanied is not a courtesy detail: it is also part of your health.

What Patient Experience does (and what it does not)

Patient Experience listens to what matters to you, explains each step, coordinates your appointments, blood tests and tests, and makes sure that every professional on the team knows what you have already shared before your consultation.

It is the role that looks after continuity, the way you are treated and the details at every stage.

But what it does not do is just as important.

In this role it does not assess symptoms, interpret results or indicate treatments. Those functions belong to the professionals in Medicine, Psychology and Physiotherapy.

If you raise a clinical question, it does not leave you without an answer: it passes it on to the right professional and makes sure you receive a reply.

This separation of functions is part of the rigour of the SHOMMA method.

A journey with a name of its own

To understand how it works, let us accompany Laura. She is a fictional case, but she brings together situations that are familiar in many women's experience.

Laura is 51. For the past year she has been waking at four in the morning and no longer manages to fall back asleep. She has less energy, notices herself more irritable and misses the mountain routes she used to do with her partner.

A friend tells her about SHOMMA and she decides to write to us.

1. The first contact

She does not receive an automatic message, but a personal reply, with a name of its own. She is offered a first, free conversation to get to know each other and to explain how the accompaniment works.

2. The Discovery Visit

In a quiet room, with no computer in between, Patient Experience listens to her before explaining anything.

Together they go through “My Prism Today”, which covers eight dimensions of her wellbeing. Laura identifies two priorities: rest and energy.

And one of her sentences becomes the starting point of everything:

“I want to enjoy my routes again without ending up exhausted”.

3. The contact agreement

When she decides to start, Patient Experience asks her three questions: which channel she prefers to communicate through, how often, and at what times she would rather not receive messages.

It is Laura who decides how she wants to be accompanied.

4. The 360º Diagnosis

A few days beforehand she receives all the practical information in a single message: schedules, professionals, how to prepare for the tests and how to get there.

On arrival, the same person welcomes her and introduces her to each professional. Nobody asks her to tell again what she has already explained.

5. The results session

When she receives her Blueprint, the document that sets out her priorities and her personalised plan, a handwritten note is also waiting for her.

Because the details are part of the experience.

6. The plan and the review

Laura knows who to turn to for each matter. She receives reminders for her appointments and the information she needs, without unnecessary messages or invasive follow-up.

A month after starting, Patient Experience asks her:

“Am I accompanying you the way that suits you? Would you prefer more contact, less, or a different form?”

The accompaniment also adapts to her answer.

What the science says about feeling accompanied

The figure of a reference person who guides the patient along their care journey has a name in research: patient navigation.

And it has a broad scientific evidence base.

It improves the experience and speeds up the care journey

A review of 61 systematic reviews, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, concluded that patient navigation is associated with greater participation in screening programmes and with shorter times between screening, diagnosis and the start of treatment.

The evidence also points to improvements in quality of life and in satisfaction with care [1]. A meta-analysis focused specifically on satisfaction found results in the same line [2].

Practical support is also care

A meta-analysis of 122 studies on social support and adherence to treatment found that the type of support most closely related to following health recommendations was practical support: helping to resolve everyday obstacles [3].

Coordinating an appointment, explaining how to prepare for a test or avoiding an unnecessary trip is not a minor formality. It is a concrete way of making the care of your health easier.

What the body feels when you are not alone

This is where the connection between mind and body appears.

Faced with a situation we experience as demanding or uncertain, the organism activates its stress response system. One of the physiological signals of that response is the release of cortisol.

In an experimental study, a group of women faced a standardised stress test in the laboratory. Some were accompanied by a close friend and others remained alone.

In the accompanied women, the increase in anxiety and negative emotions was smaller. Support was also related to a more attenuated cortisol response [4].

But not any kind of support works the same way.

In another study with women, exclusively verbal support from a partner before a stressful situation did not reduce the physiological response; other forms of interaction did show different effects [5].

The idea matters: accompanying is not simply saying more, but offering the right kind of support.

You choose how you want us to be close

At SHOMMA there is one accompaniment rule we care about especially: neither surveillance nor insistence.

You decide the channel, the frequency and the timing. Every message has a purpose. And silence, when there is nothing useful to say, is also a form of respect.

It is not only a question of style.

A meta-analysis of 184 datasets on self-determination theory applied to health contexts showed that support for autonomy is related to greater motivation, wellbeing and better health outcomes [6].

Put another way: the changes that last are those in which the person takes part and over which they can make their own decisions.

What the science says… and what it does not

As part of our commitment to rigour, it is also important to acknowledge the limits of the evidence:

• Much of the research on patient navigation comes from cancer care. Its principles can be useful in other care journeys involving several professionals, but its results are not directly extrapolatable.
• The stress studies were carried out under experimental conditions and with close people, such as friends or partners. They allow us to study how the organism responds to social support, but they do not demonstrate the specific effect of a Patient Experience role.
• Accompaniment does not replace clinical care. It complements it and helps make the care journey more coordinated and continuous.

At SHOMMA, feeling accompanied is also health

Premium treatment is not in the adjectives, but in the details that sometimes go unseen:

• That every professional knows your story before you walk into the consultation.
• That you do not have to repeat again and again what you have already told.
• That someone remembers the sentence you started with.
• That your preferences matter and that your pace is respected.

At SHOMMA we understand Patient Experience as an essential part of integral, personalised and connected care.

Because feeling accompanied, without feeling controlled, is also health.

SHOMMA Healthspan Center. The future of longevity is female.

Scientific references

Chan, R. J., Milch, V. E., Crawford-Williams, F., et al. (2023). Patient navigation across the cancer care continuum: An overview of systematic reviews and emerging literature. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 73(6), 565–589. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21788

Wells, K. J., Campbell, K., Kumar, A., Clark, T., & Jean-Pierre, P. (2018). Effects of patient navigation on satisfaction with cancer care: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Supportive Care in Cancer, 26(5), 1369–1382. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-018-4108-2

DiMatteo, M. R. (2004). Social support and patient adherence to medical treatment: A meta-analysis. Health Psychology, 23(2), 207–218. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.23.2.207

McQuaid, R. J., McInnis, O. A., Paric, A., Al-Yawer, F., Matheson, K., & Anisman, H. (2016). Relations between plasma oxytocin and cortisol: The stress buffering role of social support. Neurobiology of Stress, 3, 52–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2016.01.001

Ditzen, B., Neumann, I. D., Bodenmann, G., von Dawans, B., Turner, R. A., Ehlert, U., & Heinrichs, M. (2007). Effects of different kinds of couple interaction on cortisol and heart rate responses to stress in women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 32(5), 565–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2007.03.011

Ng, J. Y. Y., Ntoumanis, N., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., Deci, E. L., Ryan, R. M., Duda, J. L., & Williams, G. C. (2012). Self-determination theory applied to health contexts: A meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(4), 325–340. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612447309