Medgate app with integrated video communication from CCR
Digitization is advancing with large steps in health care too. Medgate is one of the innovative providers for integrated outpatient health care in Switzerland and is maintaining the largest tele-medical tele-medicine center in Europe run by doctors. There are over 90 experienced male and female doctors available day and night for your patients in the Medgate tele-clinic. Since its inception in the year 2000, Medgate has conducted more than 7.4 million tele-consultations, of which 770,000 took place in the year 2017. On peak days, up to 5,000 patient contacts take place. Medgate is characterized by the fact that its patients are advised by doctors. They are supported by technological aids such as its own patient management system and, since springtime 2018, the new Medgate app with integrated video communication.
Visual and auditive patient communication
In the past, contact with patients took place via telephone. Both the appointments and subsequent consultations with doctors were carried out with the help of voice calls. Users of the new app can now directly fix an appointment online. At the appointment date and time, the doctor contacts the patient directly via the smartphone, either via a voice call as prevalent so far, or even via video. This possible regardless of whether you are at home, traveling somewhere or on holiday. Visual contact improves the exchange and provides the doctor with more options of assessing the condition of the patient and of making better diagnosis in certain cases.
The video communication takes place by the EasyConnect video solution from CCR, the next generation of “visual communication platform”. EasyConnect is a plugin extension to the Genesys PureConnect (formerly Interactive Intelligence Customer Interaction Center), which Medgate has already been deploying for a few years as a Contact Center Platform.
Requirements of Medgate met
Technical implementation encompassed evaluation of an appropriate system that meets the requirements of Medgate for patient consultation with video communication. “For Medgate, apart from the functional scope, integration of the solution with the existing Contact Center Platform was crucial”, says Anthony Dyson, CIO at Medgate. “The innovative solution EasyConnect Video from CCR meets our complex requirements.”
Apart from video communication, even high-resolution images can be captured, which can be used for diagnostics. The choice between Cloud implementation and an on-premise installation was also an important deciding factor for us”. The newly developed WebRTC standard of EasyConnect Video enables a very high level of video and audio quality, which is essential apart from the guaranteed security and safety. In addition, the solution from CCR is highly adaptable, which means that design and handling of in-house systems and processes can be customized.
Decision in favor of EasyConnect Video from CCR
Medgate decided in favor of the video solution from CCR at the end of 2016. Integration took place in the second half of the year 2017, and the system was then launched in April 2018.
Medgate is the first company that EasyConnect Video has integrated on an app. In the course of implementation, the engineering teams on both sides has to overcome a few hurdles. The intensive cooperation was worth it because from the patients’ perspective, the video communication runs easily and directly in the Medgate app. From the perspective of the doctors, EasyConnect Video is an integrated component of the core application of Medgate, which means that the doctor does not have to operate yet another system. “The seamless integration was decisive for us. In this way, even during a video consultation, the focus is not on the technology but on the patient”, observes Anthony Dyson satisfactorily. Since the time of the initial launching and adaptation phase, the platform is running stably and reliably. Anthony Dyson confirms: “CCR is an innovative and committed partner. They are virtually always present to assist us, but even during critical phases, they even come promptly to us onsite. They share our vision of digitization and join us in our efforts in that direction.”
Video consultations meet the expectations of the present for a modern form of patient-doctor communication. Medgate uses these benefits. The potential of video communication for efficient patient communication is huge. Digitization in health care systems must be the way it is at Medgate.