Navigating Care Together

The healthcare parternships aiming to improve patients’ journey

“Part of being an advocate is helping my patients find their voice and be heard,” says Victoria Ibrahim, a patient advocate at Solace Health. Solace Health is a digital platform that connects patients with qualified healthcare professionals – doctors, nurses and other medical experts with an average of 16 years of experience – who act as advocates to assist and amplify their patients’ voices throughout their healthcare journey.

Every day as an advocate can look different, says Ibrahim. For every hour spent directly with a patient is an average of three or more hours behind the scenes doing research, arranging appointments and services and contacting hospitals on behalf of her patients so that they can focus on their health. She also attends primary healthcare provider appointments with her patients – sometimes guiding it, other times sitting back and taking notes – depending on what they feel most comfortable with.

As a former paediatric nurse, Ibrahim understands the intricacies of the US healthcare system well. “A lot of my patients feel like they haven’t gotten the attention they need from the healthcare system. Sometimes they have had pretty serious diagnoses that went undetected or misdiagnosed for years,” she says. Jose Madera and Jessica Sellars are two patients that have experienced just that.

Since the age of nine, Madera has experienced heart problems, and in 2011 he had a heart attack. For many years he also lived with unexplained symptoms, including dizziness, vertigo, nausea, difficulty eating, gait issues and tremors – and has a recurrence of prostate cancer. After seeing Madera’s conditions continue to go undiagnosed for over 10 years, Sellars sought out support for her partner and found Solace Health online. In December 2024, Madera became Ibrahim’s very first patient. At the start of their journey together, Madera was long-awaiting a response from a neurologist at a specialty clinic in California – a long way from their home in Colorado. Through her prior healthcare knowledge, Ibrahim was quickly able to make contact with the clinic, arranging appointments with the relevant experts and ensuring the costs of their housing, transportation and food were covered. Only then did Madera receive the Parkinson’s diagnosis they had been waiting so long for.”I don’t know how we could have done it without her. She was integral at every step of the way. It was so much to juggle and handle, but with her we finally got there,” says Sellers. Madera echoes the impact Ibrahim has made on their lives, describing her as “an angel in the sky”.

Ibrahim now advocates for Sellars, too. Almost 13 years ago, when Sellars was Madera’s primary caregiver, she suffered a traumatic brain injury and spinal injuries in a car accident.

Her injuries mean that she struggles with her organisation skills, which has made navigating the healthcare system especially difficult. But there has been a recent breakthrough – after almost 13 years of what Sellars describes as “awful seizure activity”, Ibrahim’s advocacy has meant that Sellars was able to get the right testing, and the results have shown that the seizures might be treatable.

Research suggests that more than 43 million people in the US have a limited understanding of the complexities of healthcare, which can prevent them from being able to access, understand and utilise the US medical care’s information and services – leading to difficulty when experiencing health issues. Cost can also play a substantial role for some. According to a new survey, 47% of US adults are worried they won’t be able to afford healthcare in 2026, and 30% said that a household member skipped medical treatment altogether due to cost. The complexity of the system personally affected the co-founder of Solace Health, Jeremy Gurewitz, when his mother, a radiologist, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Despite being a physician, and having access to a network of clinical experts, securing the right healthcare for his mother “was really challenging”, Gurewitz says. “I just kept thinking about the millions of people across the country who don’t have the advantages that my mom and family had. We were in a good location and we had good insurance, yet it was still such a terrible experience navigating care.” While his mother was ill, he met healthcare advocates, who he describes as “super-caring” people dedicating their lives to helping people, like his family.

After his mother passed away, Gurewitz was inspired to make a difference and build a platform to connect patients to healthcare advocates. Studies show that when patients have expert help navigating the system, diagnoses can come faster, hospitalisations can decrease and outcomes improve. “Patients and advocates are at the core of everything that we do. We want to bring humanity back to healthcare,” says Gurewitz.Since launching in 2022, Solace has helped over 200,000 patients, caregivers and families through the thousands of advocates they have on their platform. The success, Gurewitz says, lies with their mission – to help empower patients, improve outcomes and work to restore the promise of the US healthcare system.

The Solace platform provides patients and loved ones with digital access to their advocate whenever required, such as if they need assistance navigating a new diagnosis, finding healthcare facilities, helping control a chronic illness, or coordinating medical care, as well as supporting in the social determinants of health, such as food assistance and housing, to make care more accessible. “It’s been really rewarding to see patients improve their day-to-day lives and take some of the stress off of their shoulders – especially, for things that are a lot harder for them to handle than they are for me,” says Ibrahim. Solace advocates have a no-homework ethos, so patients are not asked to do anything but focus on getting better, and they can reach out to their advocate when they need anything done, from paperwork and care arrangements to simply a kind ear.

“Healthcare touches everyone in some way and that’s what makes Solace different. I speak to almost every person we hire, and they all tell their stories – about themselves, their family, friends, loved ones,” Gurewitz says. “Everybody here cares deeply, and that care permeates everything we do.”

Solace is only just getting started. “It’s really important to me to be able to help everybody,” Gurewitz says. Ultimately, he hopes that every individual will have a healthcare advocate as part of their care journey. “It will make such a difference across everyone’s lives. If my mom had a healthcare advocate, it would have been a much better experience.”

Madera continues to face issues around his diagnosis and recurring prostate cancer, but he and Sellars feel comfort in knowing that they’re not alone in facing it this time. “It feels very different having someone that can navigate the system… not being out at sea, trying to figure it out on our own – that’s really powerful,” says Sellars.