Hurry It up: Why Are We Still Relying on Patient Recall in the Age of Modern Medicine?
“Hurry it up! come on! I’ve got to get to the end! I’m not going to live forever.”
— Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
That feeling is universal: the urgency to reach the point, obtain answers, and maximize time. For many of us, that’s how a doctor’s visit feels. They feel compressed, hurried, incomplete. Beneath the frustration of the quick appointment is a deeper, quieter discomfort: the reminder that our time isn’t endless. We want more from our care not just because we crave clarity, but because health is our way of holding on. And yet, in 2024, 76% of diagnoses still rely primarily on a patient’s ability to recall their own history (JMIR MedEd, 2024). Despite all the systems we’ve built—EHRs, apps, patient portals—we still start with, “So, tell me what’s been going on?” This means that much of a patient's ability to receive a clear diagnosis and treatment during a visit depends on their capacity to recall every relevant detail, filter out what’s not, and communicate in language the provider understands. But, if I’m not expected to do that at the mechanic, why is it expected at the doctor’s office, especially when so much of my medical information should already be in the record?
Why That Statistic Inspired Storyline
At Storyline, our founding team wasn’t just frustrated. We were providers inside the system, trying to make it better. We spent hours requesting medical records (always slower than expected), piecing together charts, and prepping for visits that might not even happen. And yet, even with all that prep, when the patient arrived, there was always something essential missing. Something we couldn’t find until we heard it directly. Medical records are overrun with length, but short on insight. Some are copy-pasted endlessly. Others are stripped to the point of uselessness. What’s vital gets buried. What’s repeated gets ignored. As providers, we were often doing triage on the chart before we ever got to the clinical part of care.
What We Built Instead
Storyline Health Navigation was born out of that disconnect. We realized that our most valuable commodity isn’t technology—it’s time. But time alone isn’t enough. It needs to be time spent well. So we flipped the model. We start with a deep, human-led review of your records. Then, we extract what matters: the accurate diagnoses, timelines, labs, gaps in care. Then, we shape those into a format that helps us actually care for you. Then, and only then, do we meet with you, and we are ready to listen, clarify, and build the story forward. We do this because you shouldn’t have to start from scratch every time you see a new provider. You shouldn’t have to say, “Didn’t you read my chart?” And you shouldn’t feel like the clock is ticking louder than your own voice.
We named our company Storyline because we believe your health deserves coherence. Continuity. Character. And, even in a system that moves fast and sometimes fails you, we believe in helping you find the throughline. Your “why.” Your next right step. Because, as Whitman reminded us, we are all rushing toward something. But, the best stories aren’t rushed. They’re navigated.
Sources:
Fukuzawa, F., et al. (2024). Importance of Patient History in Artificial Intelligence–Assisted Medical Diagnosis. JMIR Medical Education. Link
Healthwatch England. (2025). One in four patients in England find errors in medical records. The Guardian. Link
