Key Takeaways
Telehealth Can Be Provided via a Smartphone: Telehealth services can be made more accessible by utilizing mobile phone capabilities, provided that the phone has audio and video capabilities that can be used for two-way, real-time interactive communication.
Data Security is a Priority: The patient data is of utmost importance. Due to the sensitive nature of the information transmitted, it is crucial that security and privacy are the top priorities when working with telehealth services.
Understand the Market Needs Thoroughly: Healthcare domains have established routines and procedures so it is important to understand the workflows. The technology should follow the workflow.
User Experience is Critical to Success: The UI/UX should be simple and easy to navigate, Features should be easily identifiable, especially in emergencies. The patient’s experience should be as seamless as a personal visit to a doctor.
The Company
This Canadian healthcare technology company set out to create healthcare delivery solutions that are efficient, intuitive, accessible, secure and cost effective. The founders saw that healthcare delivery and the technology used was not keeping pace with the ever-changing needs of patients, and they decided to build practical solutions to improve access, enhance quality of care, and drive better outcomes.
As two professionals who were well versed in the technology and health care industries, they teamed up to bring a practical solution to Canadian practitioners, with the intention of improving access to medical care, enhancing the quality of care and delivering better health outcomes to communities.
Their challenge was to develop the right solution that would save medical practices costs and increase their operating capabilities by increasing efficiency. If this was achieved, practitioners & medical office assistants would be able to do more with their time and their abilities to better serve patients would increase. They would be able to streamline their operations and back end functions, and therefore be able to spend more time actually seeing and healing people within the communities who need medical expertise.
The vision was to build a project management platform with a suite of applications for healthcare offices to function more efficiently, streamline communication, and improve the patient experience. The company also wanted to develop a telehealth application that allowed doctors to offer consulting services to patients remotely, via video conferencing.
Project Priorities
1) Quick MVP Delivery: They were looking for a relatively quick turnaround time for the delivery of a minimally viable product. They wanted user feedback as quickly as possible so that they could iterate the concept.
2) Compliance with Canadian Privacy Laws: The product needed to comply with Canada’s strict residency and privacy laws. Due to the sensitive nature of the information and industry, the technology would need to be 100% secure. Privacy was a major priority of the project.
3) Operational Efficiency: The platform had to actually aid healthcare providers increase their revenues by improving operational efficiency and staff productivity. It needed to be clear what the correlation between the technology and efficiency was.
4) Budget Sensitivity: As with many start-ups, their idea needed to be created within a conservative budget. From a development perspective, the technology partner needed to be very mindful and aware of the cost constraints and ensure that the development costs were kept low.
5) Seamless Integration: The application needed to be intuitive and seamlessly integrated. The medical environment is often fast-paced and one where every minute counts. It relies on precision, expertise and organization. The technology could not be difficult to navigate or glitchy, because it would hinder the operation instead of enhance it.
6) Ease of Adoption: The product would need to suit all demographics and be simple to integrate with existing systems and practices. Due to the nature of the healthcare industry, onboarding could not be a time-intensive process. Any healthcare professional, no matter what their exposure to technology, would need to be able to gain a functional understanding of the uses of the platform and be able to perform workflows with minimal troubleshooting.
The Process
Recognizing the need for a team with a very specific skill set to bring this idea to market. They reached out to AOT because of our experience in the government and healthcare industries, as well as our expertise in custom software development.
Together, we aimed to create Canada’s first multi-discipline, multi-channel healthcare communication application.
Their mission was:
“…to achieve the best-possible health outcomes by improving communication between healthcare providers and their patients, using advanced technology. We are committed to providing communication solutions tailored to meet the specific and ever-changing communication needs of our clients and their patients in innovative and cost-effective ways. We will build value for any practice through the strength of our technology, coupled with our insights and superior support.”
The Project Execution
In order to ensure project costs were feasible for a startup, we offered them an onsite-offshore model. In this model, a local business analyst worked with their team to understand their needs and the system requirements. To keep costs low, our offshore development team did the bulk of the work, adding extra developers to speed up the development timeline as necessary.
When we work with a client, we really value their partnership and work to create a plan that works for both parties. Bearing this in mind, we provided complimentary design services to ensure that the right product would be built the first time around. As their team was already 18 months behind schedule, we recognized the importance of laying out excellent designs and clear requirements early on in the process so that they would not need to backtrack.
Within 16 months, the team successfully delivered two phases:
- Phase 1: Project management software with several sub-applications.
- Phase 2: A telehealth application enabling secure, remote consultations.
The solution was built using Microsoft Azure with selective third-party integrations to accelerate delivery.
The Final Product
The project management software was built to provide clinics with a suite of applications to manage patient communication in one centralized application. The applications include:
- Patient Reminder Application: Automated reminders via email, SMS, or IVR to reduce no-shows and improve collection of no-show fees.
- Advanced Access & Virtual Waitlists: Patients could waitlist or sign up for same-day appointments, improving triage and reducing wait times.
- Secure Messaging & File Transfer: Built-in workflows for secure document sharing, prescriptions, requisition forms, and images.
The telehealth application allows doctors to offer individual or group consulting to patients across distances through real-time high-definition video conferencing. With the telehealth application, practitioners can drive a new revenue source and boost patient satisfaction, improving efficiency with instant access to standby patients, and even attend to multiple patients at a time.
This also makes healthcare available to more communities. Smaller communities who may not have access to specialists can use the platform to have real-time conversation with specialized medical personnel, which can reduce costs to the healthcare system and to individuals, as well as reduce wait times to see specialists without compromising on quality of care. The telehealth application can also make medical care more accessible to people who cannot physically go to medical clinics. Those who cannot transport themselves to clinics and hospitals but require regular medical attention can use the video features to access the help they need.
Business Results:
The tools were well received by healthcare professionals and produced measurable improvements:
- Reminder application reduced no-shows by 90% and decreased front-office workload by 40%.
- Office assistants reported significantly less repetitive work, lowering the risk of burnout.
- Advanced access and waitlist applications reduced front-office workload by 30%.
- Telehealth platform allowed practitioners to consult multiple patients at once and serve individuals unable to attend in person.
The company continues to enhance the solution with regular updates and improvements for healthcare providers.
Technology:
The platform was built using the Microsoft Azure suite and incorporated third party solutions where appropriate to ensure quick delivery MVP delivery.
To meet the project requirements and ensure on-time delivery, the AOT team decided on the following suite of tools and technologies:
