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How to Implement a Successful Telemedicine Program

By Carina Reverter - Meeting Doctors
CEO Latam

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By Carina Reverter | CEO Latam - Fri, 12/02/2022 - 11:00

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MeetingDoctors has successfully implemented more than 80 telemedicine programs in more than 14 countries, in six languages, with sponsors from different industries, and I want to highlight the key success factors for implementing such programs. 

MeetingDoctors is a company that provides a digital healthcare solution that puts medical professionals in the palm of your customers’ and employees' hands. At MeetingDoctors, we offer a B2B medical chat and professional video call service through a powerful mobile app that is easy to download and user-friendly. This is easily integrated into the digital environment of the company, via an app or via the web. On the other side of the application, qualified doctors from more than 10 medical specialties answer queries 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, providing instant answers (in less than 2 minutes) at any time, from anywhere.

All this makes us leaders in the volume of medical consultations through chat. MeetingDoctors is present in nearly 100 companies and provides medical services to around  7 million users, attending more than 1.2 million consultations per year, with an average response time of 1.26 minutes. With this, MeetingDoctors contributed to avoiding 800,000 trips to medical centers in 2021, since more than 65 percent of consultations are resolved digitally and do not require a face-to-face visit. 

Currently, we complement the services of different insurers, while taking care of health and supporting the workers of several companies in different sectors, helping to reduce absenteeism, improving their satisfaction and providing health benefits.

The great satisfaction and loyalty of our users are the flagship of MeetingDoctors and, at the same time, give the companies that trust us a great differential value.

Key success factors for implementing telemedicine programs include: knowing your target patients, adapting the communication channel to that target, leveraging the engagement of the patients with the sponsor of the program, simple user experience, providing quick answers and services, providing a broad range of specialties and 24x7 coverage with high quality doctors, incentivizing prevention and wellness and data privacy and data protection. 

Patients may have different needs, so we need to understand the target audience of the telemedicine program. The lower-income population looks to access healthcare services at a low cost, as they tend to have difficulties accessing healthcare services.  populations look for convenience. They have different needs, and their connectivity is totally different. the lower-income population might have a smartphone and use WhatsApp, but they might run out of data in the middle of the month. The higher-income population has latest-generation smartphones and very good connectivity, with mobile data or Wi-Fi connection. In Mexico, there is a big and growing working middle class who have good smartphones and connectivity but don’t have a proper healthcare solution, as they cannot afford private health insurance, and public services are not meeting their needs. 

Successful programs adapt the communication channels for exercising telemedicine, from apps, web or telephone. Whatsapp can be a good channel for engaging users and for liaising patients with the telemedicine platform, but should not be used for exchanging sensitive health information. Telemedicine services need to be easily available at the point of contact of the patients. The population is highly digitized and connected, regardless of their income level, so we have to identify the traffic of our target population. 

MeetingDoctors partners with the sponsors of the telemedicine programs to provide services. Finding the right sponsor for providing telemedicine services to a specific target is key as it saves time and cost for contacting and enrolling the patients in the program. We see good and stable communities of loyal customers and employees who are enrolled with different companies, such as retailers, drug stores, fintechs, insurers, banks, e-commerce solutions and . We provide a white label solution, so that the sponsor can brand the telemedicine services with their look and feel. That increases the engagement of the patients and their loyalty to the sponsors. The Mexican government implemented NOM-035, transferring some responsibility to the employers to take care of the physical and mental health of their employees. Given the limited access to healthcare services for most of the population in Mexico, I believe this is a right and efficient approach for improving it.  

Telemedicine services should be used before considering a face-to-face visit to the hospital or to your doctor. The moment patients need this service is a very special moment for them, as they need a medical consultation and they might feel anxious. At this moment, telemedicine should be very smooth and simple. Providing an immediate response is key for success. MeetingDoctors provides a very simple solution, where patients can contact our 400 doctors with a simple click for chat or video conference communication. The consultation is provided immediately, in less than 2 minutes. There are solutions in the market that require filling in long forms, more than 10 clicks, or appointments with long wait times for contacting doctors. Those are big barriers for using telemedicine services, as they miss the key moment of patients’ needs. All telemedicine companies should take the UX function very seriously. We need to put ourselves in our patients’ shoes and live the patients’ journey, to ensure that there are no barriers for use. The experience needs to be simple and friendly. UX is an obsession for MeetingDoctors. Our technology allows real-time monitoring by our medical directors, so that they can see the resolution of all requests, compliance with assigned shifts by all professionals, with visual key performance indicators to identify any deviation in service and to act immediately. 

Different people are looking for different services in telemedicine programs. Prevention and wellness are highly valued . MeetingDoctors covers prevention and primary care, with doctors and professionals in general practice, gynecology, pediatrics, dermatology, cardiology, endocrinology, bariatrics, urology, midwifery, psychology, nutrition and diet, personal training, sexology and allergology, among others. Promoting prevention, healthy habits and awareness of different illnesses and health issues is very efficient using technology. This practice allows the  identification of  health issues at an early stage, avoiding further health complications and containing associated healthcare costs. We are available 24x7, and that is key for a successful telemedicine program. Having high-quality doctors is mandatory to generate trust in the service. We work with very experienced doctors and professionals, from very good universities and hospitals, that are highly valued by our patients. Transparency is also key, and we always provide the picture, curriculum and professional ID number of all our doctors to our patients. Patients need to know at any time with whom they are interacting. Digital solutions allow more transparency than analogical telemedicine solutions.  

Finally, it is very important to keep private information confidential and secure. Health data is among the most restricted and sensitive information, and MeetingDoctors complies with GDPR in the EU so that the health data is only seen and shared by the patient and the doctors who are consulting that patient. The data is well encrypted and segmented, among other security measures. Leading companies in different sectors require the  implementation of best practices in data protection and MeetingDoctors complies with them. 

Photo by:   Carina Reverter

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