Health Care Clinicians

Synapticure is a teleneurology platform that provides a continuity of care to people living with neurodegenerative diseases. We have a licensed medical group that is composed of nurses, licensed clinical social workers, genetic counselors, and board-certified neurologists. Our doctors have gone through a rigorous selection process to become a part of CareND and have committed to placing patients first.  We aim to improve care for all people living with neurodegenerative disease by applying the new technology and scientific breakthroughs of the last few years. 

A patient surrounded by a nurse, care worker, physical trainer, and doctor

We're on your team

We work with patients to understand how we can best augment their existing care in collaboration with you. Our goal is not to replace a patient’s care team, but to work with and co-manage patients that are referred to us. 

We help with the extra work

CareND provides patients with care coordination services, on-call neurologists, via accessible web and mobile applications. These capabilities are designed to reduce the burden on patients, and augment the care you provide to them. We work in tandem with you to provide wraparound care for patients, and to address the questions and developments that often occur in between visits.

A patient surrounded by a nurse, care worker, physical trainer, and doctor

"The foundation of Synapticure was developed by people living with ALS and their caregivers along with thoughtful input from leading ALS clinicians from specialty centers. The fusion of these perspectives will allow Synapticure to complement the care provided through ALS centers while augmenting and optimizing care for those living with ALS."

Dr. Jinsy Andrews

SENIOR MEDICAL ADVISOR AT SYNAPTICURE

Health Care Clinician FAQ

What does Synapticure aim to do?
  1. Broaden access to specialty care especially in areas where there may be few or no specialty neurology centers nearby, and through that we hope to shorten time to diagnosis.
  2. Reduce the burden of coordinating and managing patient care for providers.
  3. Complement the care and resources provided by specialty centers. Often PT, OT and speech therapy are provided and sometimes (but not always) social work or psychologist services are provided. The hope is that in the long term, all people living with neurodegenerative diseases have easy access to these services. We will endeavor to expand these services to patients by building networks of in-home providers or telemedicine services where there may be a gap in these services.
  4. We plan to continue to expand into related neurological diseases. We know neurodegenerative diseases are heterogeneous, and the mechanisms that lead to them have significant overlap with other neurodegenerative conditions.
  5. We strive to advance population-level research for neurodegenerative diseases. We will share de-identified data with researchers in the field, leveraging partnerships. This will require partnerships with the specialty centers who do this now and we are looking forward to supporting and augmenting this important work.
What value does Synapticure bring to centers of excellence?

CareND partners with centers of excellence to augment their capacity and, eventually, have the goal of expanding how many patients can gain access under their expertise. We collaborate with the centers to extend the high-quality care that is provided. For example, we can take on administrative work such as collecting and organizing medical records, teaching patients how to navigate clinical trials tools, file for disability, find access to local resources, or learn how to clean a feeding tube. We are here to support you and increase the time you can spend with patients, helping you get more time to deliver high-value service to your patients.

I do not work at a center of excellence, how does this help me provide better care?

For most primary care physicians and non-specialized neurologists, it’s rare to diagnose and treat neurodegenerative patients. Today, bench science is rapidly evolving and as a result, everything from understanding when to suggest testing for a diagnosis for a patient to helping patients find potential clinical trials they can enroll in can be a full-time job to keep up with. We’re here to keep on top of that research and lift that burden for you. That way you can focus on care delivery for your patient, and leverage our disease-specific expertise to get your patient the best care possible. Our care team responds to after hours texts, can set up calls as needed for a patient, and partners with you to support a rounded care team.

When should I contact you?

You can refer any patient to us as soon as you have diagnosed them with a neurodegenerative disease. Early intervention is key to quality of life for patients.

How do we coordinate with you to make sure we have seamless care?

Team approaches to care aren’t new to diseases - tumor boards are common practice in cancer for example. We look to apply this approach in neurodegenerative diseases. Namely - in reviewing a patient’s medical records, we connect with all of the patient’s care team. This includes everyone from their primary neurologist and wrap-around care center to their in-home PT and home-assistants.

We pull in medical records from every doctor a patient has seen to create a summary and make sure the full care team has a shared understanding of where the patient is. We also share key updates to other clinicians and flag action items where it is helpful. We will proactively reach out to you to keep you informed so that things don’t get lost. Synapticure has pods (of neurologists and care coordinators) that are specifically assigned to a center or region we work with. This ensures that external clinicians can build relationships and trust with the same people on our team, as opposed to having a rotating point of contact.

I am a clinician, how do I partner Synapticure?

We are excited that you want to work with us, please email partner@synapticure.com to learn more about partnership opportunities.

"Working with Synapticure has saved time for our physicians and staff, allowing us to focus on providing frontline ALS care for our patients. They take on the task of organizing medical records and making sure they are complete, advocate for patients, and help patients navigate potential clinical trials based on their testing results. They also provide genetic counseling to patients before and after their tests, and offer explanations when patients have a variant of undetermined significance. By raising awareness of the importance of a certified ALS center and providing a smooth path for physicians to refer their patients, this partnership has also allowed us to see more patients from underserved areas."

Catherine Lomen-Hoerth, MD

Professor of neurology in the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and director of the ALS Center at UCSF Medical Center.

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Patient Referral

If you have a patient who you think would be helped by Synapticure, please enter their information into this form.