Reimagining Healthcare for People with Parkinson’s
Thrive Well Together (TWT℠) is reimagining healthcare for people with Parkinson’s Disease. Founded on the idea that everyone deserves to live well, and motivated by personal experience, this tool inspired an equitable and accessible Parkinson’s collective to uplift members of the PD and PD+ communities, their care partners, and their loved ones.
TWT℠ offers personalized support and guidance for individuals with PD and their care partners, empowering them to proactively manage their PD journey with confidence and ease. In pursuit of this goal, Shan Havins, CEO of TWT℠ who lives with Young Onset Parkinson’s disease, worked with tech developers to create a patient-designed AI companion that can provide people with useful knowledge and answers to both common and unique questions whenever they need it and it goes well beyond the kind of quick online search we are all so used to these days.
This tool extends beyond an AI chat you can come to and ask questions for resources once or twice. This new AI companion allows users to continue conversations from last week and to check on their progress and even follow up regarding suggestions made months ago. AskShan is a resource for users to come back to, again and again as Parkinson’s needs evolve. Developed using first-person interviews and research, AskShan wants to know how things are working for you, how you are feeling today, and what other areas they could support. As a tool designed by a person with Parkinson’s, a lot of thought went into the design and how to protect the privacy and data of users through a robust anonymization process of data before it’s aggregated to ensure those asking questions can ask knowing that their questions are truly between them and AskShan.
More than simply a generic AI, AskShan is a chat tool with a voice rooted in compassion and care, trained using lived experience and thoroughly vetted research to provide resources and guidance to people with Parkinson’s and their support systems. Carefully designed to be maximally useful and scalable other diseases beyond Parkinson’s, the designers eager for the world to find this tool.
TWT℠ began out of the need for accurate information and networks of support for people with Parkinson’s. The core of TWT℠ and AskShan is about making the overwhelming experience of living with Parkinson’s more manageable. This new tool curates resources, connects people with the right information at the right time, and ultimately, helps people thrive, not just survive, with Parkinson's.
TWT℠’s goal is truly to create an ecosystem of care that helps people with Parkinson’s feel resourced with networks and knowledge that can enhance the care they receive from their own providers. In being able to use AskShan to find out more about their disease, it is our hope that they feel more confident in advocating for themselves as they seek care for any of the symptoms and experiences that arise over the course of their journey with PD.
We are ecstatic that AskShan is now available for free to the world, and we are thrilled to take the next step on this path of curated care together with our users.
Shan Havins, PhD is the founder and creator of Thrive Well Together. She attended the WPC 2023 in Barcelona and is looking forward to attending the WPC 2026 in Phoenix.
Ideas and opinions expressed in this post reflect that of the author(s) solely. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the World Parkinson Coalition®