Dr. Matsunaga, ENT and voice specialist, treated a 63-year-old male, heavy smoker and heavy drinker. The patient’s chief complaint was a hoarse voice. Upon examination, Dr. Matsunaga discovered small nodules in the patient’s larynx, which he suspected to be cancer of the larynx. Subsequent tests at a histology lab proved this diagnosis to be correct. However, the patient also complained of recent tiredness, which could have been caused by a depressed immune system (due to his heavy smoking and drinking).

Dr. Matsunaga duly noted this, but only referred the patient to a major cancer hospital for the larynx condition, where a full examination revealed advanced stage liver cancer. When Dr. Matsunaga found this out and rechecked his records, he further realized that the patient had been afflicted with slightly off-color skin, which he had also duly noted, but at the time he dismissed it in his mind as fading sunburn. Dr. Matsunaga had performed his duty as an ENT expert and discovered cancer of the larynx, but the lack of an efficient, intuitive and transferable recording method for secondary symptoms of tiredness and off-color skin meant that a much more serious cancer nearly went undetected.

Lifetime Health Diary™ would have recorded the patient’s chief complaint, with simultaneous highlighting of skin color and tiredness, through the severity symptom recordings on the single page “Total Health at a Glance” display. This would have meant a much higher likelihood of routine discovery of possible liver damage, instead of the chance discovery that occurred in this case. In sum, Lifetime Health Diary™ may help to uncover the possibly significant secondary complaints lying outside a doctor’s specialty.