Remember the scenario where people spent hours waiting in the hospital for their treatment or primary health checkup?
In recent years, the emerging trends of technology combined with innovative ideas have revolutionized the healthcare industry by creating new and engaging platforms for patients and doctors. These platforms enable convenience and ensure precise medical assistance at the fingertips, allowing patients to visit their doctors without stepping into the clinic but through newly enhanced virtual care platforms.
According to research by Software Advice, 75% of respondents are more inclined towards using a virtual care platform as it provides numerous benefits like no transportation cost, no waiting lines, eliminating elderly and child issues as well as no catching of new diseases.
Moreover, during the crucial period of the pandemic, everyone understood the necessity of the platforms where patients can communicate with their doctors without actually stepping into any clinic or hospital. These platforms are the outcome of innovative ideas of healthcare service providers to enable convenience for patients and doctors. This is where Telesofia Medical excels in the healthcare industry.
Telesofia Medical is one such innovative platform that allows patients to report to doctors directly. It allows physicians to track the patient’s health and provides them with customized videos containing the treatment instructions.
Under the astonishing leadership of its Founder and CEO, Dr Rami Cohen, the company has promoted patient empowerment, reduced unnecessary medical complications, and increased treatment efficacy and efficiency.
In an interview with Insights Care, Dr Cohen shared the journey of Telesofia Medical, highlighting its significant services that empower reliability in the healthcare industry.
Below are the highlights of the interview.
Please brief our audience about your company, its mission, and the key aspects of its stronghold as a virtual healthcare service provider.
Telesofia Medical is the leading provider of personalized videos designed to improve outcomes by enhancing patient education and engagement. The engagement platform is an end-to-end, automated system designed to increase compliance and promote behavioral change using digital means. The platform allows instant generation of personalized educational videos based on the demographic characteristics of the patient and their specific medical needs.
The videos can be watched more than once at any time using any device without installing any app. Content covers medication instructions, discharge explanations, procedures and tests explanations, chronic patient support programs, population health, and more. The videos can also be shared with family members, caregivers, and others.
This platform enables asynchronous virtual care by allowing clinicians and providers to manage their chronic patients using a two-way communication tool. It also includes combining questionnaires, medical algorithms, and personalized video results with pre-defined education. For example, the platform allows cancer patients to communicate with clinicians to better manage the side effects of chemotherapy.
Tell us more about the offerings that give your company a distinctive edge to stand out from the competition?
Telesofia Medical transforms medical information into personal videos that are automatically generated in one second only. Our innovative technology has been used by millions of patients around the world and has been utilized by renowned health-related companies and organizations all over the world. With phenomenally successful collaborations, our tailor-made software has launched many programs working alongside the most prominent actors in the private and public sectors of health care. It is a proven, patented technology that improves clinical outcomes.
For example, Telesofia Medical collaborated with The Gastro-Intestinal Oncology unit of Sheba Medical Center, one of the largest oncology centers in the Middle East. In this collaboration, they run a pilot program that aims to empower oncology patients to mitigate their chemotherapy side effects while at home.
One of the biggest challenges for doctors is the lack of interaction with their patients in-between visits. A lot of critical information about the patients’ status, symptoms, and side effects, can fall through the cracks until their next visit (typically every six-to-eight weeks).
The innovative platform allows patients to report side effects in real-time and automatically receive customized videos directly from their oncologist containing treatment instructions. Videos are tailor-made based on physician instructions, patient self-reports, and best practice guidelines. The platform also allows physicians to track patient side effects while they are at home and set up individual alerts when needed.
The technology has the potential to promote patient empowerment, reduce unnecessary medical complications and increase treatment efficacy and efficiency. It demonstrated a significant reduction of emergency room visits among active users of the system vs non-active users.
We are proud to be working with Sheba as we share similar values. We both believe in a holistic view of patient needs, patient centricity, and patient empowerment, both while in the hospital and between visits. We are glad that we demonstrated the impact the new system has on the patients’ clinical outcomes. The dedication and efforts of Dr Shacham Shmueli, Dr Bursi, and the entire GI oncology unit have been paramount in the development of this platform.
This personalized program provides doctors with ongoing vital information and creates a new bridge between doctors and their patients—all with minimal effort on the clinician side (under a minute to set a six-month plan). A special relationship evolves when a patient, sitting at home, sees their doctor pop up on their cell phone screen, in a video with specific instructions and addressing them by name.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, what challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them while ensuring the safety of your employees?
As a tech company, we were agile and able to quickly shift some activities to a remote working environment.
For example, during the lockdown, the Telesofia Medical team has built a film studio in our offices and managed to exclusively produce significant covid-related projects for an Israeli HMO, Maccabi Health Services. The actors and production team have been replaced with Telesofia’s employees.
Personalized videos sent to COVID-19 affected patients showed how to use self-monitor kits, explained the official government instructions during self-quarantine at home, COVID-19 testing invitations, and more.
With continuous development in technologies such as AI and ML, what is your prediction about the future of virtual healthcare services in the industry?
Platforms and products that collect data will remain prominent in this field. AI is also used to stratify risks and predict events and patient behavior. The winners will be the ones who can respond with actionable guidance based on the vast amounts of data and combined with deep insights about the customer/patient.
Telesofia provides that actionable guidance in a compelling, effective personalized video that generates better compliance with the guidance.
As an established leader, what would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts aspiring to venture into the industry as virtual healthcare service providers?
Ensure that you understand the customer – who will buy the product or service you are creating, in addition to who will use the product/service. Healthcare is complex, and many times the customer is not the user. Also, ensure that you know and can communicate how that purchase will make them or their customers and patients better.
How do you envision scaling your company’s operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?
Telesofia Medical aims to continue remodeling healthcare to a more efficient and human-centric system. The company plans to expand its offering to enable better outcomes with lower costs, by automating clinicians’ explanatory work via digital tools and personalized videos.
A Skillful Guide
Dr Rami Cohen founded Telesofia Medical by combining his passions for medicine and technology. Dr Cohen holds a medical degree from Tel Aviv University and worked at the vascular surgery wards of Sourasky (Tel-Aviv) and Assaf Harofeh Medical Centers.
He also has 25 years of experience in the internet industry, having started his career in 1997 at ICQ (formerly Mirabilis, acquired by AOL in 1998 for US$407 million) in various roles. Since 2001, he has helped several companies and start-ups with product development, marketing, business development, and innovation management.
