Scientists, doctors and virologists are working hard to find a cure for COVID-19 and develop a vaccine. Our society and our health care systems and employers in particular are currently under a lot of pressure. One of the main challenges is how to identify patients with COVID-19 from others. To avoid risks to themselves and other patients, many doctors conduct telephone consultations. Overall, it is important to keep the coronavirus outside of doctors' waiting rooms and reserve the use of emergency departments for those really in need of hospital care. In this context, there is no need to explain the perks of a consultation without physically seeing the patient. That is why Vectera is a convenient tool in telehealth on many levels.
Telehealth on a local level
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought telehealth closer to home. Hospitals are already promoting remote consultations to keep people away from clinics and minimize the virus' spread. Indeed, many doctors have found ways to help patients from a distance using telehealth, thus adhering to social distancing. While contact via telephone is valuable in these situations, video consultations offer many advantages, especially for healthcare professionals who have digitalized their medical practices. Patients can still book an appointment with their doctor, who can observe and walk them through their symptoms one by one. Vectera offers you the possibility to maintain your practice, keeping a good flow in your routine without losing precious time. It has an integrated scheduling feature, allowing patients to book an appointment without the need to contact you directly. This makes Vectera very time efficient and allows you to consult patients 24/7. As you can currently use Vectera fully featured for free, it's also cost-effective.
How to use Vectera during a consult?
Our main goal is to make virtual consultations as customizable as possible. To make it personal, the doctor can easily provide information, integrating an overview of the differences between a regular cold, the flu and COVID-19 while having a one on one talk.
Features to personalize a consult
1) Integration with Google Drive for patients' files
2) Virtual personal assistant
First of all, clients make an appointment with you without back and forth mailing. Vectera checks your availability in your online calendar and directly saves the new appointment. In addition, it is possible to change the template of the confirmation email your clients receive after booking a meeting with you. Furthermore, you can opt to simplify the triage by sending them an online questionnaire. Read more about connecting your calendar and creating a personal booking page. Second, you set up a meeting quickly without scheduling if needed. Finally, recurring patients will be led to the same private meeting room so you can pick up where you left and check previous complaints in private notes.
3) Client-friendly and safe telehealth (or telemedicine)
Vectera is easy to use. No downloads are required, so patients can use their favorite devices, including smartphone, tablet or computer. Simply send them your booking link, Vetera will take care of the rest.
Furthermore, we store your data safely as the platform is GDPR compliant. All streams (audio, video, screenshare and cobrowse) are end-to-end encrypted so no eavesdropping there and sent directly from the sender to the receiver (P2P). If P2P is not possible due to restrictive firewalls, TURN servers kick in. These are located globally and they are optimized to be the closest to the end receiver. The stream that is sent over these TURN servers stays encrypted. More on the topic can be found on https://www.vectera.com/security/
Uniting international experts in telehealth
Connecting experts from all over the world is crucial to share scientific results. Together you always achieve more. The last couple of weeks we saw some fake news about COVID-19 taking over social media. This proves that good information and communication towards patients, media and other involved parties is meaningful. Doctors, nurses or other healthcare employees should restrict the outbreak by organizing virtual meetings. The thing with regular tools as Zoom or Skype is that it is not easy to share statistics and scientific results. Read here how Vectera makes a difference.
Features to optimize conferences
1) Interactive collaboration
Using a digital whiteboard comes with lots of possibilities. It allows for writing down explanations, making and correcting notes, drawing schedules and explanatory figures, making use of symbols, markers, math formulas and so on. Whiteboards are entirely customizable. All whiteboards and documents are safely stored so you can pick up right where you left off at the start of the next meeting.
2) Record meetings in the cloud or local
Vectera meetings are fully private; only participants with the link can join. However, it can be useful to record meetings in case you would like to share information or remember what was discussed.
Why should I consider Vectera?
According to CNN, "telehealth-focused companies have witnessed a boom in the past few weeks that can be traced to the coronavirus." For instance, Deardoc, a big medical digital marketing firm, has switched to Vectera to practice social distancing. Find more information on www.vectera.com. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any further questions. We are available on live chat and by email.
