Telehealth Solutions and Virtual Care in Action

COVID-19 has become a public healthcare ‘reality check’ for every country in the world.  At a time of shortages and imbalances with healthcare personnel, quality and access to care services, together with high risks of infection, especially those on the frontlines – that is care specialists, telehealth services are turning out to be key technology for safe and efficient communications.

The WHO  marks the telemedicine model as an important service to optimize care delivery and clinical decision support in its policy on “Strengthening the Health Systems Response to COVID-19”.

Up till now, telehealth solutions have not triumphed as intended (it has been around for about 40 years says Jonathan D. Linkous, CEO of American Telemedicine Association) but today telehealth technologies, like mHealth, eHealth, telemedicine, and remote patient monitoring (RPM) are becoming fundamental parts of the healthcare crisis solution.

The question of ‘if the tech can fundamentally change the way medical services are delivered’ is no longer relevant. In times of social distancing, a highly contagious virus and drastic gaps in the public health systems, the remote secure online health-related telehealth services, like advice, education, monitoring, search and location, and education between doctors and patients, can significantly impact some of the most challenging problems of our current healthcare systems:

• Mitigate risks of the pandemic spreading
• Effective care coordination
• Wider access to care services
• Cost-effective delivery and distribution of limited providers

Telehealth solution example

Avenga is no newbie to using innovative technology in bringing value to our clients and a wider world, and here is a real-life success story of telehealth put into action:

Our partner, M3 Healthcare Technologies, is a technology provider serving the healthcare and life science industries for over 20 years by deploying next-gen technologies.

When partnering with Avenga ( back then CoreValue), the company needed a mature telehealth solution, smoothly integrated into an existing health management system that would make it easy to locate a relevant healthcare provider according to the end-user’s search criteria.

We did what we do best

Avenga built an all-inclusive Android and iOS mobile app solution that matches the users’ medical needs with the required healthcare service.

A flexible HIPAA-compliant telehealth solution with consistent, reliable functionality is united into one easy to use health and lifestyle management system. Starting from:

• Personal healthcare concierge service that assists in scheduling appointments and ensuring the optimal use of the health insurance policy’s options, on up to:
• Symptom checker
• Medication reminder
• Medical supplies feature
• Digital healthcare card

Additionally, by applying integrated data science practices, the app was boosted with data-accurate functionality like: 

• ‘Find a provider’ geolocation service with cost-based results
• The provider’s ranking based on specific search criteria

The story behind it telehealth solution development

David Koplovitz, former CTO of M3Health on challenges, “we were supporting self-insured enterprises such as labor unions and trying to steer users to lower-cost providers or telemedicine options in their area. Our biggest challenges were time constraints and lack of local talent, combined with an ever-changing set of business requirements from our internal team…”

The client was struggling to solve a number of issues when developing a comprehensive telehealth app and also needed to implement all the vital functionality into a customizable service delivery system that would guarantee the best customer experience.

A team of 9 (mobile software engineers, data scientists, a PM, a BA, a QA analyst):

• Completed a thorough health check of the existing solution  
  Evaluated, analyzed, and made recommendations for all aspects of the solution: project structure, mobile development framework and quality assurance from a financial, operational and business-specific perspective.
• Developed applications and solutions
  Captured all vital features fitting for the original business ecosystem to ensure that it would be a complete solution solving the routine issues along the way, like functionality, errors, and compatibility.
• Employed data science capabilities
  Powered the telehealth application with value-added functionality, like cost prediction related to a specific provider, a provider’s ranking based on specific search criteria and the provider’s geolocation.

“They provided really top-notch people for us,” said Koplovitz. He went on to say that “We had an Agile project with no final checklist or deliverables. Basically, we were sprinting and burning down our backlog. I was pleased with the process and the product. At the end of the day, those are the only metrics that matter.”

Based on this experience, we realized that tech is fully capable of making a difference in healthcare’s ability to deliver. Telehealth services and virtual care today, like never before, have to become a universal systemic response to flatten the curve.  Health providers, stimulated by the clinicians and care professionals, are changing their approach to technology and data, and marrying tech like never before.

Are you wondering what makes Avenga different from other technology partners? We are a unique blend of quality and delivery capabilities. Our established business models allow for fast kickoffs and lightning-quick scalability. Avenga makes it a special point to deliver secure technological infrastructure and processes that are reliable in supporting new technology initiatives, so that clients from every industry, including telehealth, can better serve their customers.

“They were a great partner. In the three years I partnered with them − on no less than four projects for three separate companies − I was always impressed with their employees’ professionalism and focus on excellence. I did not view them as vendors, but as teammates”. David Koplovitz, former CTO, M3 HealthcareTechnologies