Maple: Leveraging Innovation and Technology for Providing Convenient Healthcare

 

The healthcare space is changing drastically. With the help of emerging technology, telehealth now plays an important role in shaping how people experience healthcare. Through new tools and software, telehealth is being integrated in day to day life. Maple, a platform that connects patients with doctors in minutes through their computer or mobile device, is leading the charge in Canada, making healthcare more accessible across the country.

Dr. Brett Belchetz, the Co-founder and CEO of Maple believes that this combination of healthcare and technology will dramatically improve the experience of patients. He and his team have been working to make healthcare more accessible with a series of consumer facing and hospital focused technologies. To showcase these new healthcare platforms, we bring to you a unique interview with Dr. Brett Belchetz.

What is Maple? How does it benefit patients and doctors?

Maple is a virtual care platform that tackles some of the world’s most meaningful issues in healthcare, starting with timely and convenient access to doctors and other healthcare providers. Maple’s consumer-facing platform allows patients to connect directly with doctors in minutes from their smartphone or computer 24/7/365.

This system is also leveraged by employers, as a means of reducing workplace absences and increasing team productivity. In addition, Maple provides customized technology solutions for hospitals and clinics that are seeking to advance in the delivery of care. These systems include Canada’s first-ever telehospitalist platform, as well as ER-diversion technologies.

What are your contributions towards the company? What led to the inception of Maple?

I’ve been an emergency room doctor in Toronto for over 15 years. Throughout the years, I’ve seen wait times grow longer and longer while precious resources grow scarcer. Many of my patients have no family doctor, and even those who do often can’t obtain an appointment for weeks. It has always upset me when I saw my patients waiting 4 hours or more to see me in the ER for basic family medicine type issues.

They are usually losing out on a day of work or missing out on important life events. Sometimes they are exposed to the flu while waiting for something that could have been addressed in a few minutes on the phone. I always thought there had to be a better way.

A few years ago, I had a eureka moment after I gave three separate friends’ medical advice by text message in a single week. All three of them were able to avoid a lengthy ER visit and a large amount of anxiety.

In my head, I thought “this is so unfair that my friends and family can access a doctor’s advice any time by text message, while most Canadians have to wait for hours in a waiting room.” My second thought was “wouldn’t it be amazing if we created a service that lets all Canadians contact a doctor the same way in minutes?” And thus, Maple was born.

How is the internet helping to shape healthcare and how is it enabling Maple to accomplish its mission?

At Maple, we believe that through technology and innovation, you should have access to healthcare professionals when and where you need it. You bank online, shop online, and work online. Why not access healthcare online?

Our mission is to tackle some of the world’s most meaningful issues in healthcare, starting with timely and convenient access to doctors and other healthcare providers – so that you can feel better, faster.

Describe the extraordinary journey of Maple so far. Where do you portray it in the years to come?

Maple’s journey has been defined by solutions. When we launched in 2016, we saw ourselves as a purely consumer-facing platform, which would provide timely access to Canadians. Shortly after, a number of businesses approached us to ask about our corporate offering, so we crafted a solution tailor-made to their needs.

Similarly, our hospital program was born out of the determination of the administrators at Western Hospital in Alberton, PEI, who needed to address ongoing physician shortages. Working hand-in-hand with them, we created Canada’s first-ever telehospitalist system.

There are countless other issues that technology can solve in the years to come to make Canada’s healthcare system a world leader, and we will continue to address them.

Describe the revolution that ‘Telehealth’ has brought to the healthcare industry. What are its effects?

Telehealth is the future of sustainable healthcare delivery. It’s been shown that over 50% of healthcare issues can be addressed safely online, with higher rates of patient and provider satisfaction seen compared to in-person care. As our population ages, telehealth allows us to treat patients in the home, saving our precious and expensive hospital capacity for the neediest among us.

Also, telehealth evens the playing field between rural and urban locales, allowing even the most isolated regions to have access to the top medical professionals in the world.

Share with us the most remarkable customer experience along with awards and accolades.

One of the most powerful customer experiences happened on a train traveling through rural Ontario. Hours away from any hospital, a person went into anaphylactic shock. They had an epi-pen, but being in shock, they couldn’t remember how to use it. The person traveling with them logged into Maple, video conferenced with one of our doctors for direction, and then administered the shot. In only took a matter of minutes, but saved the patient’s life.

Our telehospitalist program, which has been keeping the doors open at Western Hospital in Alberton, PEI through Canada’s first virtually staffed inpatient ward, has also been highly recognized by both the Government of PEI, winning its Department Innovation Award and the Health PEI Board’s Leadership in Quality and Safety Award  in 2019. The program has also been recognized in the province’s Legislative Assembly in 2018. We were a finalist for the Canadian Health Informatics Awards in the Patient Care Innovation category as well — the response to the program was amazing.

What advice would you give budding entrepreneurs in the Telehealth space?

It’s easy to get side-tracked by the pursuit of revenue and growth, so it’s important to always maintain your “north star” of why you went into this in the first place. For us, that’s to improve the health of patients in a sustainable way. We’ve been guided by this in all the decisions we’ve made and it served us well.

What are your future goals? Are there any exciting services in the queue to be launched?

Since last year, we’ve been adding a number of specialties to the Maple platform, from dermatologists to lactation consultants. In the near future, we see Maple as the connecting platform, between all your healthcare providers, allowing you to connect with any type of practitioner through the platform which will act as a repository for all your health records to enhance continuity of care.

Source - https://bit.ly/2F5dpp7                                   Next Article - COVID-19: Leveraging Virtual Care for the coming Pandemic

Cloud DX: Delivering Quality Care at Home

Facing the unexpected has become an inevitable part of our daily lives. The Covid-19 pandemic and its unfathomable impact has startled industries across the globe.The current scenario of the healthcare industry is very fragile and tense due to the increasing corona virus cases.

People are scared to visit hospitals for other health checkups apart from the Covid-19 symptoms. The fear of being infected by the virus has helplessly occupied in peoples’ minds. People have started to reach out to doctors or hospitals through digital mediums for the care they need. Due to this, a drastic acceleration towards telehealth and virtual care can be seen in the healthcare industry.

Cloud DX is one prominent name among many telehealth solution providers in Canada. It has been a frontrunner in the telehealth industry. The company has incepted major modifications to the healthcare systems. It has introduced various new and innovative ways of treating patients remotely. It has also built confidence among patients and is thus ascending the zeniths of success.

Cloud DX founders Robert Kaul, Anthony Kaul and Dr. Sonny Kohli formed the company united by a vision to positively transform healthcare by reducing healthcare costs, by giving more people access to healthcare, and by making it easier for doctors to provide care and improve patient outcomes.

Through the below interview with the Cloud DX team, let us get to knowthe company from the inside.

Kindly brief us about the company.

As the healthcare industry rapidly moves to embrace telehealth, virtual care and remote patient monitoring at scale, Cloud DX is a first-mover in the race to combine clinical grade data collection with a consumer-friendly user experience.

Our mission is to create the worlds’ most effective, affordable, and easy to use digital solutions for virtual care, fully connected into modern healthcare systems to deliver superior results and improved patient outcomes.

Our value proposition is simple and powerful: more data + better data = better outcomes at lower cost.

What are the distinct products and services provided by the company, setting it apart from its competitors?

The Cloud DX Connected Health platform combines the best of telemedicine with remote vitals monitoring, patient surveys and smart notifications. It allows physicians, clinicians and care teams to virtually care for patients from hospital to home by automating monitoring of patient vitals including blood pressure, pulse rate, spO2, receive notifications should symptoms change, schedule a telehealth conference and implement pre-approved ‘action plans’ to help patients and their families proactively respond to changes in condition.

What are the key attributes that helped your company to overcome the challenges?

• Strong and accomplished leadership team
• Innovative product pipeline (vital sign detection, wearable monitors, cough analysis, medication detection, augmented reality)
• FDA and Health Canada approved products in market
• Strong alliances with healthcare providers, payers, advisors, and government organizations

What is the current scenario of Telehealth Solutions Providers Segment, from your point of view?

The COVID-19 global pandemic has dramatically accelerated the industry’s shift to telehealth and virtual care. Hospitals in virus hot-spot areas are stressed beyond capacity frontline healthcare workers are dying in unacceptable numbers.

Management of chronic illnesses accounted for more than 75% of worldwide healthcare costs in 2016, with heart disease (CHF), stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) named the top 3 global causes of mortality by the World Health Organization

1 In 2016, CHF and COPD combined claimed 12.5 million lives around the world, or 22% of all deaths that year. These illnesses cost more, and take more lives, than all cancers put together. Chronically ill individuals are among the most vulnerable populations to the COVID-19 virus.

The answer is virtual care – keep patients away from hospitals. According to a recent report by Deloitte:

Fifty percent of executives believe at least a quarter of all outpatient care, preventive care, long-term care, and well-being services would move to virtual delivery by 2040.

Three out of four executives predict that industrywide investments in virtual health would be significantly higher (more than 25 percent) over the next decade than today.

94% expect that next-generation data and interoperability solutions will enable widespread data sharing; and 88 percent of executives predicted wearable devices will be integrated with care delivery, resulting in a more tailored, personalized virtual health experience for consumers.

About two-thirds of surveyed executives thought that removing regulatory and payment barriers would accelerate virtual health adoption.

Cloud DX Connected Health Kits, remote patient monitoring and doctor-approved Action Plans allow patients and clinicians to intervene early to avoid exacerbations due to COPD and CHF – improving outcomes for these patients. Our platform has been clinically proven to reduce hospitalizations due to COPD exacerbation by 80%, and emergency room visits by 36%.

We believe that the use of virtual care solutions encompassing remote patient monitoring and telehealth in the management of COVID-19+ve patient, post-surgical patients and management can substantially reduce hospital re-admission numbers, improve hospitals capacity to do more elective and urgent surgeries, improve outcomes for the chronically ill, and reduce the spread of COVID-19 by keeping people out of the hospital.

What are the benefits gained by your clients, what strategies you embrace to keep them engaged?

Healthcare provider clients of the Cloud DX Connected Health platform are realizing all the benefits outlined above. In addition, patients feel more empowered and in control of their condition through regular monitoring of their vitals. This improves engagement in personalized health plans including medication adherence, which itself is a multi-billion-dollar annual problem.

What would be your advice for the budding startups and entrepreneurs in the industry?

Be tenacious. Believe in your vision. Treat your customers like gold. Learn quickly from your failures and be quick to adapt.

Brief us about the company’s future perspectives.

Expect to see a robust product pipeline from Cloud DX expanding our platform of offerings, scale up of manufacturing to meet growing demand, aggressive expansion into the US market and broader integration with EMRs. exacerbation by 80%, and emergency room visits by 36%.”

Source - https://bit.ly/2EYP0lc                                                                         Next Article - Maple

 

Aetonix Systems: Offering Comprehensive and Seamless Telehealth Services

Humans are an ingenious species and since the day we came into existence, we have been either inventing or discovering new things.  Starting from bashing a rock to make a tool, to artificial intelligence, everything we invent or innovate is for our advancement and that stands out as revolutionary findings.

However, the key point to be noted here is that the intention within our persistent nature to innovate or invent something, is to experience and offer superior comfort and seamless solutions. Starting from companies, industrialists, scientists, and small vendors who continuously strive to innovate or invent something new, all serve the same purpose.

Adhering to the same thought, our paths—in the quest to find Canada’s 10 Most Prominent Telehealth Solution Providers in 2020—crossed with Michel Paquet, the Founder and CEO of Aetonix Systems. After keenly observing the healthcare industry, Michel realized that there was a gap between the patients and healthcare professionals. As a result, patients were not able to receive the right prognosis or treatment. It was to address this issue that Michel started Aetonix Systems.

Before we dig deeper into the science behind this invention, let us delve into the story of Aetonix Systems’ initiation. This story will shed some light on the ‘why’ of Aetonix Systems.

When Michel’s 83-year-old aunt was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, she found it difficult to let family and healthcare professionals know what she needed, leading to problems with her care, and feelings of isolation.

Michel was concerned and realized his aunt wasn’t the only person with these common problems that arise with aging; Alzheimer’s and dementia, and other types of healthcare issues. So he founded Aetonix, to simplify care for those who needed it most – patients with complex needs.

Today, Aetonix has developed state-of-the-art use cases for other complex care like COPD, Diabetes, heart failure, hip/knee surgeries, cancer, and COVID-19 in recent times.

The below conversation with Michel helped us understand how Aetonix offers premium-quality and patient-centric care to all those in need.

Kindly brief our readers about about the company.

Michel: Aetonix began its journey in 2014 with the aim of simplifying care for patients with complex needs, covering both chronic and acute care. Usually, such patients suffer from a healthcare system that is very fragmented. They cycle through the system without anyone ever establishing a complete 360-degree picture of their care plan. Aetonix, via its platform aTouchAway, forms a Circle of Care around patients, so they can be coached and guided according to customized care pathways set for them by healthcare organizations. We are a full-service remote patient monitoring company.

What are the distinct products and services provided by Aetonix , setting it apart from its competitors?

Michel: One should know that almost all reputable remote patient monitoring companies offer telehealth, which is virtual two-way calling, and remote patient monitoring that involves remotely transmitting a patient’s vital signs to their care teams. Aetonix goes beyond that and uses clinical forms, educational resources, reminders and a host of other features to build customized workflows for patients. We enable organizations to guide and coach their patients by forming of the circle of care around them that consists of physicians, nurses, specialists and even family members.

What are the key attributes that helped  Aetonix to overcome  challenges?

Michel: We have tremendous partners who help and counsel us to do better. We are housed in Invest Ottawa, whose mentorship program has been very valuable. Our advisory board is totally committed to our vision and helps us set our direction in healthcare, while our commercial partners help with channel market introduction. Our employees have great camaraderie amongst each other with an all for one, and one for all attitudes.

What is the current scenario of the Telehealth Solutions Providers Segment, from your point of view?

Michel: There is a lot of consolidation happening. More traditional telehealth firms are acquiring each other, remote patient monitoring firms are being acquired by insurance companies, and remote care vendors are partnering with each other where one is more specialized in hardware and logistics, and the other in software. It is hard to say what the future folds, but in general, the market is getting warmer for remote care adoption amongst healthcare facilities.

What are the benefits gained by your clients and what strategies do you embrace to keep them engaged?

Michel: Our clients are able to manage their patients remotely. When we say manage, we really mean manage each and every aspect of healthcare, so patients receive one continuous episode of care thanks to the collaboration of all healthcare professionals using our platform to administer the care plan. We collaborate on workflows for patients if needed so the patient receives optimum care. Since we enable them to develop their care pathway as a part of our platform aTouchAway, it is a nonstop collaboration activity in order to get the workflow to match different scenarios that may be the need of the hour.

What would be your advice for the budding startups and entrepreneurs in the industry?

Michel: First and foremost, they should just do it. That is, start an organization. The best way to learn is by doing and learning from all the experiences on a daily basis. Healthcare is a very competitive field, so they shouldn’t be afraid to get their hands dirty in the process. They should also surround themselves with partners with healthcare expertise that will help them understand the healthcare environment.

Briefly tell us about the company’s future perspectives. 

Michel: We are looking to grow as a company and expand to other markets outside of Canada. We have deployed in the USA and UK and are looking to deploy to other continents as well such as Asia and South America. Globalization has meant that organizations want the best remote patient monitoring solution that fits their needs, regardless of where the headquarters are.

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COVID-19: Leveraging Virtual Care for the coming Pandemic

Covid-19 is the name given to the novel Corona virus first discovered in Hubei Province, China. The new virus has since been defined and at the time of this article, is responsible for over 90,000 cases of respiratory illness and has spread to every know region of the World. The ultimate infection spread rate is still evolving but currently stands at 2-3 persons infected from every known contact and mortality rates are approximately 2-3%, while patients over 80 yrs. of age mortality rates are 15% thus far.

The WHO has activated strategic planning and is offering assistance under pandemic preparedness to countries most at risk due to poor medical infrastructure or lack of medical resources. The concern is not only wide spread disease due to exposure into high density, developing nations; but that this outbreak will burden medical systems beyond their capacity to provide services. This is a concern for both developed and underdeveloped nations.

This outbreak, approaching pandemic proportions, has created an urgent need for innovative solutions to reduce community spread and identify those most at risk or requiring treatment due to severe illness. It is at times such as this that innovators will have opportunity to create new solutions to deal with Covid-19 using the latest technology and tools. One tool of special importance would be virtual healthcare.

Virtual Healthcare is defined as any encounter between patient and provider for the exchange of information, treatment or diagnosis that is other than a face to face visit. This means providers engaging patients with secure electronic text messaging, phone calls or video calls if telemedicine platforms are available. Countries vary in their utilization rates for virtual care and a study by Kaiser Permanente in USA showed 60% of their patient encounters were virtual in 2017, while in Canada only about 0.3% of visits were classified as virtual. Now given the concern Covid-19 will place upon healthcare systems, virtual or video visits will be more important to protect front line healthcare staff and patients. Hospitals will need to attempt directing Covid-19 suspect cases away from their ERs and relie upon designated assessment centers to tightly control infection prevention protocols in the community. Patients requiring medical access for routine visits or non-urgent matters, can easily be handled using telemedicine during the peak outbreak season.

This article would propose a novel method of engagement using point of care testing, allocation to home based follow-up and potentially treatment with passive immune therapy that will likely be available before vaccines are created.

IDENTIFY CASES IN THE COMMUNITY USING POINT OF CARE TESTING

A South Korean company PCL, has Korean FDA approved rapid antigen test kits. These kits test for viral antigen using sputum from deep cough, or swabs from the nose and mouth. The sample is placed on a developer slide and after 10 minutes, using a UV light source, read as positive or negative. The kits currently listed at 25 USD per test, report sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 85%. The advantage is testing can be done easily in the community or in the patient’s home. This may allow regions to identify suspect patients by telephone triage and direct them to specific fever assessment centers or the kits may be dispatched direct to the home by community paramedics equipped with PPE.

TELEMEDICINE VISITS TO THE PATIENTS TESTING POSITIVE

The patients testing positive will require triage to remain at home for the current 14-day quarantine period established under WHO guidelines. Patients that are seriously ill can be transported to regional hospitals, should they require respiratory support, deeper investigation or monitoring. The patients dispatched home would be assigned to home temperature monitoring, and if available, could be visited virtually by community nurses or physicians. The complexity of the home-based monitoring would depend upon the infrastructure available. Developed nations are already providing remote patient monitoring with vital signs, blood pressure kits, oximeters and weight scales, with ability to connect live to nurses or physicians available on the platforms. The intent of the home-based monitoring is to detect progression of chronic disease states such as Congestive Heart Failure or Chronic Lung disease. These platforms can easily be converted to provide the supportive monitoring needed for Covid-19 that produces pneumonia and respiratory distress. Early signs of fever and a drop in oxygen levels would be an early indicator a patient may have progressed and would be allocated to supplemental oxygen and/or hospital admission. The goal of the community assessment programs and early identification of potential contacts, is to isolate as soon as possible so patients do not pass the virus to contacts within their community. A point of care triage system leveraging a kit such as PCL Covid-19 and telemedicine protocols for follow-up, will greatly reduce the numbers of patients coming to hospital ERs looking for assessments. As the volume of infections in a community increases, the risk of unknown or asymptomatic carriers infecting the Hospital OP or ER becomes greater. Local public health units could leverage community educations programs to help patients understand if they have a fever, cough and/or have been exposed to someone with Covid-19, they should contact the local health authority and NOT attend to the hospital or physician office. They would be instructed from home to be assessed by specialized teams of infection control officers or be sent to the local fever assessment center closest to them.

NOVEL TREATMENTS ON THE HORIZON

Companies are working fervently to create a vaccine for Covid-19. The challenge is knowing which part of the virus to target your vaccine against. This becomes an effort of complex bioengineering, modeling, and clinical trials on real world patients once a vaccine is in prototype form. Most experts believe a vaccine is at least one year away and the current rates of spread within some nations such as Iran, Italy and now South Korea, suggest wide spread disease much sooner than one year.

A company based in California called Bio Distributed, recently was featured in the Netflix documentary series called “Pandemic.” Dr Jake Glanville and Dr Sarah Ives have been working to create a single shot universal influenzae vaccine using their bioengineering protocols. Recently Dr Glanville and his team have now also focused on Covid-19. Dr Glanville believes that until an antigen vaccine is available, the other approach is to create a passive immunity vaccine. He believes it is possible to quickly replicate the antibodies our bodies make against Covid-19.  Bio Distributed has a patented process that would allow bioengineers to build the antibody proteins first in the lab, then mass produce this antibody to fight viral infections already established in the patient’s body. This antibody can in injected or infused for patients tested positive that are acutely ill. Medical protocol and directives will be required to determine the optimal time of antibody infusion, and also determine which patients are at risk of serious illness or risk of death. Mass productions of the antibody and regional distribution may make this solution available only to more developed nations in the beginning but more than likely released to Countries experiencing widespread disease and perhaps priority for the regions with most serious outbreaks. This passive immunity would likely allow earlier discharge from hospital, freeing up needed beds and reducing healthcare infrastructure burden. Since the current infections seems to be targeting seniors over age 80, these efforts for passive immunizations might be focused on patients with complex needs or those at greatest risk.

This article is intended to stimulate discussion among leading authorities within the infectious disease community and hopefully create further collaboration on infection controls and treatments. The collision of ideas between innovators in various sectors of healthcare technology will be a fast track to solutions for the outbreak of Covid-19 and hopefully reduce the impact of what appears to be an evolving pandemic.

Dr Keith Thompson MD FCFP is Adjunct Faculty Dept Family Medicine at Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in London Ontario, Canada. He is Chief Medical Officer for iTelemed, a startup company providing virtual care solutions and involved in Virtual House call research and development.

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