Innovative telemedicine solutions showcased by startups at HIMSS22 APAC | So Good News

Jignesh Buta, Chief Operating Officer of Smartfuture, first introduced his startup’s patient app and doctor portal. He said after patients enter their details in the app and select their symptoms, they are taken to a page where they can choose a device to measure their vital signs.

“We have united [around 400] Medical devices of various brands, more than 31 vitals, including both intermittent and continuous,” he added.

After the patient records vital signs using a video or image format, the information is stored in both the patient app and the physician portal. The doctor immediately sees what the patient has recorded and makes a video call with the patient. After the call, the doctor will be taken to a module where he can prescribe medication, give a medical certificate or refer to a specialist.

“We’re going to end that journey with an email to the patient… We hope to make the journey between the patient and the doctor a little more comfortable,” he concluded.

Kung asked Buta to share about the most common use case for the platform, to which he recently replied that it was first responder situations.

“[We also see] most chronic case management and these programs can last from three weeks to a year. Not only that, but when we first launched, the platform was actually a self-monitoring health kiosk with Bluetooth-connected devices. Thus, we have participated in many public health projects, and the importance of life will be useful in the development of many policies of communities, hospitals.”

AlteaCare is an integrated digital health platform

William Suryawan, Chief Operating Officer and Founder of AlteaCare spoke about their platform that connects patients in Indonesia with healthcare professionals in hospitals. He used a case study of a patient named “Junita” to explain how AlteaCare works.

Junita – with the help of AlteaCare – consulted a doctor in Jayapura via video call about her condition, but she was not satisfied with the treatment recommendations and wanted a second opinion from a doctor in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. He sent his lab results stored on the platform to that doctor for consultation. Satisfied with the suggestions for treatment and medicine, he chose to buy them and have them delivered to his home.

“This can happen because AlteaCare has been successfully integrated with electronic medical records in hospitals. Thus, after a teleconsultation, the patient can access a summary of the medical record and send his medical records to any doctor who wants a second opinion,” he concluded.

Humaidi wanted to know how AlteaCare differs from other telemedicine applications.

“Since AlteaCare is integrated with the system, physicians do not need to type information into the AlteaCare platform and can do so in their EMR or HIS. We have successfully convinced hospitals to open APIs to external applications to simplify the patient journey. [It’s also an] improved customer experience, if the patient wants to visit the hospital offline after the consultation, all the data is in the hospital,” explained Suryavan.

DoctorTool is a digital ecosystem for healthcare providers

Rainaldo, CEO and founder of Doctor Tool, explained that his healthcare startup provides a digital ecosystem for healthcare providers and citizens, with more than 230 clients spread across 24 provinces in Indonesia.

He demonstrated the product through a teleconsultation with a doctor, who can immediately see his medical history, as well as previous diagnoses and prescriptions. During the teleconsultation, he also used a blood pressure (BP) monitor connected to the Doctor Tool Hub network, which allows the doctor to see the blood pressure reading. The doctor then gave him a prescription that allowed him to choose courier services or pick up his medicine at the pharmacy.

“The Doctor Tool hub can connect with many devices, many sensors. We can use it in medical institutions. Through this type of telemedicine, doctors can diagnose and prescribe medicine. We have successfully introduced this technology to help doctors in Indonesian universities. [provide care] For families with babies or young children in rural Indonesia,” said Rainaldo.

Tan wanted to know how the patient can see what the doctor is writing during the consultation and where the patient history comes from.

“I can’t see it during the call, but I can look at the notes after the call,” explained Raynaldo. He added that the history the doctor refers to is taken from past consultations on the app.

Kesia’s HIS with telemedicine capability

San Emirza, CFO of Kardia Group in Indonesia, started his demonstration by saying that telemedicine is just a small feature of Kesia’s HIS program.

“In the remote islands of Indonesia, we do not have a good distribution of specialists, probably only GPs. [in Kesia] Our EMR has a feature that allows doctors to consult with specialists who live in big cities like Jakarta,” he said.

Emirza explained that a patient can consult a doctor about his condition, but if the doctor does not have the right expertise, for example, if the patient has diabetes, a three-way call with a specialist can be made.

“[Additionally] as a rule, GPs are not allowed to prescribe some drugs – but specialists are allowed to prescribe these drugs. Doctors who live in the same area as the patient can give the medicine to the patient,” he added.

Kung asked how they managed the process operationally — for example, making sure a specialist was available.

“So there are reservation systems,” Emirza explained. “And the specialist should have some time to provide services. Let’s say they have four hours of physical activity; should spend an hour on telemedicine.”

MFine Virtual Hospital

“It all starts with the chatbot,” Prasad Kompalli, co-founder and CEO of MFine, told Showcase via Zoom.

He explained that the MFine chatbot collects important information about the patient’s illness before the consultation.

“If someone says [they have a] if it’s a fever, we’ll ask more questions about it. If someone coughs, we record the cough through the app – we process the cardio signal to determine whether it’s an upper or lower respiratory tract infection. We do all this to make a decision in advance, even before the doctor joins the video call,” he explained.

With this information, the doctor joins the call to recommend a treatment plan to the patient. Three-way communication is also included if there is a caregiver involved in the scenario.

Compalli added that the app can measure a patient’s vital signs (such as heart rate, BP, SPO2, etc.) using a cell phone camera. With these vital factors, the diagnosis is more data-driven and the doctor can make a better diagnosis.

Dr Pacharafa asked if MFine was involved with any medical equipment.

“At the moment we are not directly connected to any hardware. In the future we would like to connect with other devices like Apple Watches,” Compalli replied.

Lim asked Compalli to share about the algorithm the platform uses to distribute patients to doctors.

“There’s no algorithm in the sense that it’s based on filters that the patient chooses. There are filters on who’s the closest doctor, who’s available, and who’s the last person you’ve consulted with. There’s also some filters on what their experience is and how many patients they’ve had so far. seen. We don’t do the matching. We actually provide that information, patients decide which doctor they want to see,” Compalli explained.

Summarize the presentation

Smartfuture won the Digital Innovation Showcase. Commenting on the win, Lim said, “Congratulations to the finalists. It was a difficult decision for the panel, but it was due to the platform’s scalability as well as the breadth of device support that makes SmartFuture stand out. It was a privilege to be part of the judging panel and bring Zoom telehealth to the masses.” willing to partner with providers to deliver.”

Wrapping up the show, several judges shared their tips and insights.

Expanding on his earlier question about operational workflow, Kung said, “How does it work tactically? How do your clinics actually interface? How do patients interface? If the user interface isn’t a big, big part of building your product, it’s not going to be successful because no matter how smooth and seamless your demo is, if it gets to the point where it’s distracting, you’ll get a popup, and it won’t fit your workflow, and it [irritating] Clinician, you will fail. Don’t wait until the last minute to start testing and looking at it.”

Sharing his vision for digital innovation, Dr. Pacharafa explained, “When we think about digital transformation, we’re looking for benefits, right? I won’t start with technology. I first identify the need or use case, and then look at the technology I need to deliver it.”

Echoing Dr. Pacharafa, Dr. Raja said, “The world’s biggest problems are the best business opportunities. So start loving problems.”