Greg’s Wings is a not-for-profit organization established in honour of a Canadian named Greg Price. The organization is founded on the events of Greg’s journey through the Alberta healthcare system, and the culmination of failures that ended in his unexpected and tragic death. In spite of the sadness of Greg’s Story, the message behind ‘Falling Through the Cracks: Greg’s Story’ is one intended to inspire positive change and improvement in the system. You can view the trailer of this emotional and thought-provoking production here.

Greg’s father, David Price, along with his sister Teri Price and lead investigator on the Greg’s Wings study Dr Ward Flemons, recently visited us here at Think Research as they continue to spread the message of Greg’s cause. We held a special Q&A session and screening event of their video for our colleagues, which had plenty of emotional impact on those present as it concerned a subject very close to our hearts.

The overriding message of the Greg’s Wings production is that Greg’s condition would potentially have been treatable had it been caught sooner, and if the system that’s designed to protect people in his situation hadn’t fallen short. When asked if there was a specific challenge in the story that they were most frustrated by, Teri’s answer was that rather than focusing on a single piece of the puzzle, it really was just a total breakdown of communication across multiple elements of the referral and technological process.

Greg’s Wings goal is to address the fundamental challenges in the healthcare environment. Similarly, our mission is to find ways to ensure that stories like Greg’s become a thing of the past. Here at Think Research we look to identify and provide technological solutions to address those gaps, and to inspire change in an industry that has historically been resistant to that change.

To provide more of a flavour of the story, below are a few selected quotes from the film packed with such scenarios:

Patient in exasperation: “I was referred 3 months ago… he finally has time to fit me in”

New doctor to patient, despite numerous referrals: “I’m seeing this for the first time but it’s very alarming”

Administrator to patient: “Looks like that fax didn’t come through”

Administrator to patient with no context of urgency: “That doctor has moved, do you want to see a new one?”

Each of the situations above, when taken in isolation, seem to be benign. However in a scenario such as Greg’s, transparency and communication became of life-and-death importance. It’s for this reason that technology will be absolutely critical to improving communication in healthcare

Hearing about Greg’s case and others like it brings to life the human consequences  of inefficient healthcare processes. It’s a worthwhile watch and admirable cause, and for our team here at Think Research we found that it helps give further justification, if it was ever needed, as to why we (along with many others in healthcare) do what we do.