health applications to fight against therapeutic wandering

Wefight is the story of a company founded by Benoît Brouard, hospital pharmacist and Pierre Nectoux, engineer from the Ecole Centrale. In 5 years, Wefight has launched 42 applications, covering 18 pathologies across 15 countries, making accessible to patients affected by a chronic disease or cancer and to their entourage a maximum of information on their pathology thanks to the series of free Vik applications. Based on artificial intelligence, these applications answer questions from patients and their loved ones in real time, and provide access to numerous tools and services to better understand their disease (articles and patient testimonials, reminder of treatments, etc.). Building on this expertise, Wefight is now tackling the invisible scourge of the care pathway: therapeutic wandering.

The Medisite editorial staff: How did you come up with the idea for this company?

Benoit Brouard : In the field of health, giving information to patients is essential, particularly through therapeutic education. This allows patients to better understand their disease and know how to react in the event of a problem. I co-founded Wefight to facilitate the sharing of patient knowledge around the disease. It was difficult to find reliable, easily accessible and understandable information. The idea of ​​the VIK applications was therefore born from the desire of combine several knowledge: that of the doctor and that of the patient. It is a real virtual assistant, who does not judge the questions asked and allows everyone to be reached.

Why do you want to focus on therapeutic wandering?

Benoit Brouard : 20 million French people are affected by a chronic disease and this figure continues to increase. Although therapeutic wandering manifests itself differently depending on the patient’s pathology, it is inherent in chronic illness. Therapeutic wandering to define it precisely is this post-diagnosis period during which the patient will have to try several treatments to find the most suitable, the one that will alleviate their symptoms and improve their quality of life. Suffering from a lack of information about his disease during this period, the patient will sometimes be lost, discouraged by the wait before obtaining an appointment with a specialist. He will often wander from treatment to treatment, from practitioner to practitioner, until he finds, perhaps after months or even years, support, the treatment and information that will finally allow him to lead the most “normal” life possible. Through our applications we want to reduce this period of therapeutic wandering and get patients to take action by directing them to the right doctor.

Can you tell us more about VIK apps?

Benoit Brouard: In France, 17 VIK applications are available. It is a virtual assistant providing a first level of response to patients who have questions about their pathology and/or their treatment and medical follow-up. It is a complementary tool for doctors and is not intended to replace them. We have around 500,000 users worldwide, VIK answers a patient question every 26 seconds. The idea is really that patients become actors in their care journey. For this, we are also setting up partnerships with other players in the health sector such as Kiplin, with whom we have offered our patient users connected physical activity challenges. We have also just set up a partnership with Maiia, a Cegedim Santé solution, to facilitate access to care for our users. We are also partners of Petit Bambou, which enriches the experience of our patient users by offering them meditation sessions from the Vik applications.