Why we are here

FTHR Group was founded in 2024 as a logical extension of work we had been doing to lead CDC’s COVID-19 Self Checker forward triage tool and the agency’s telehealth unit during the pandemic. The Self Checker had more than 21 million conversations with users during its two years of operation. Its companion program, CDC’s vSafe post-vaccine checker, had 150 million interactions with ~ 8 million people, all with around four staff. These programs were some of the most highly-visited websites in CDC’s history and the some of the most widely-used forward triage / symptom monitoring applications in the U.S. during the pandemic. These applications and similar work signaled a new era of patient- and pubic-facing clinical decision support (CDS) applications that can now build upon a substantial evidence base of using clinician-focused CDS in healthcare systems.

Where we work

Enhanced public awareness of CDS applications and success in deploying them will continue to catalyze the use of public- and patient-facing CDS applications. These will help users identify (and potentially address) medical issues before or while they seek further care, direct them to the most appropriate care, and reduce unnecessary costs in the fractured and high-friction U.S. healthcare system. In addition, advances in technology will allow first-entry healthcare providers (e.g., emergency service personnel and nursing staff) to use CDS to better assess patients and implement evidence-based approaches earlier in the healthcare process. These interventions will further improve health outcomes, quality of patient care, and overall patient satisfaction. The low use of physician and mid-level provider CDS as well as variable accuracy of symptom checkers that attempt to diagnose a broad range of conditions provides opportunities for FTHR Group to develop accurate, condition-specific applications with evidence-based interventions or guidance for the public, patients, healthcare systems, and healthcare payers.

Measuring success

FTHR Group will build on its experience to develop, implement, evaluate, and manage public-, patient-, and first-entry healthcare provider driven CDS. Our success will be measured by users of institutionally-associated or individual CDS applications that provide accurate information to empower them to make informed healthcare decisions. These tools will increase user satisfaction and reduce costs associated with unnecessary care, improving the health of these populations and saving the precious time of both patients and providers.