Care plan
A care plan is the longitudinal container for treating a condition — the protocol, encounters, prescriptions, labs, and follow-ups that belong to one ongoing course of care.
- The longitudinal unit: condition, protocol, timeline
- Encounters, prescriptions, and labs attach to it
- Makes titration and refills expected events with context
- In API platforms, an object products can build on
Why care plans beat one-off visits
DTC categories are chronic by nature: weight care, hormones, hair, and sleep run months or years. Modeling care as a plan — with a condition, a protocol, and a timeline — gives every encounter context, makes refills and titration steps expected events rather than surprises, and turns retention into a clinical property (patients continue because the plan visibly progresses).
Care plans as a data model
In some API-first platforms the care plan is a first-class object; on Lithos the same continuity is carried by the patient record, the `initial` versus `follow_up` encounter type, and the assigned clinician who follows the patient. Where it is an object, it opens with a condition category, accumulates encounters and orders, and carries state a product can render — current dose, next check-in, refill status. That structure is what lets a brand build patient experiences (dashboards, reminders, agent integrations) on clinical ground truth instead of side-channel spreadsheets.
Compliance handled, so you can build
Lithos runs the clinicians, pharmacies, and 50-state rules behind your care program — one API.
Frequently asked questions
How is a care plan different from an encounter?
The encounter is one interaction; the care plan is the ongoing course of treatment the encounters belong to.
Who owns the care plan clinically?
The treating clinicians under the medical group — the brand renders its state but does not direct it.
Can one patient have multiple care plans?
Yes — a patient might run weight care and hair loss in parallel, each with its own protocol and cadence.