STEP 1. Background

Telemedicine is a new trend in the healthcare industry started in Mainland China and several overseas countries. It is a digital platform designed for patients with mild symptoms, doctors can provide simple diagnosis services via video chats. Feeling the need to launch a new one in Hong Kong, our client came to us for technical support.

STEP 2. Business Challenge

• Difficulty to find a suitable doctor: It is difficult to find a specialty doctor as they are very demanded. Patients need to call the clinic one by one to check if the doctor is available in a specific time slot. They might need to wait for a long time before actually meeting the doctor. Without a centralised and transparent booking system, it would be a challenge for the patient to be diagnosed immediately. Location is also one of the challenges that our client would like to address, sometimes it is difficult to find a reputable specialty doctor near the patient’s location. Travelling a long distance can be tough for a patient. 
• Booking management: To develop a telemedicine application, it is important to make sure the application can assist the operation of the clinic or hospital, but not hinder it. It would be a challenge to eliminate the conflict between online and offline booking so that the operation of the medical providers will be smoother. 
• Privacy of the medical record: For the traditional medical system, unless a major surgery is done, the patients are less likely to keep, or at least find out their previous medical records easily if they visit the clinics. It would be difficult for the patients to show their medical records to a new doctor because the records are usually kept by the clinic.

STEP 3. The Solution

• Centralised filter for specialty doctors: There is a sorting function in the telemedicine application for the patients to set up their favorable time slots, doctor types, and even ratings. Once the patients finish setting up their filters, doctors who matched the requirement will show up and be selected by the patients. If available, the patients may video chat with the timeslot immediately after settling the payment. With a centralized booking status of various doctors, the patients are more likely to find an available one immediately, without waiting for a week or more. 
• Video call diagnosis: If the patients are not able to go outside, they may book a session online and meet the doctors at home via video chat. Symptoms like wounds, or skin disease may even be shown to the doctors so that more accurate results can be obtained. Also, when it is time for diagnosis, the patients will enter the waiting room first, and they will be arranged to meet when the doctors are ready so that a one-on-one diagnosis will be guaranteed. With the integration of the video call function and the application, the users do not have to shift to other applications for video chat, making it a standalone telemedicine application. 

• User-friendly system design: For the clinics, There will be a central admin for every medical unit subscribing to the telemedicine platform. The owners may open access to different staff members for help. The doctor (or the person in charge of scheduling), may select only the time slot they are available in. They may confirm the reserved time slots of the clinic first, then tick out the unavailable time slots. Thereby, the conflicts of online and offline bookings will be less likely to occur. Such a flexible design made sure that the online and offline operation do not contradict.

• Patients’ control of medical records: It is easier to adopt the big data technology with a digitized platform, to store the medical details of patients. Patients may inquire about their medical records anytime they want and they have the right to control the disclosure of their records to the new doctors. If they do not want to show their records of previous diagnosis and medicine prescriptions, they can set up in the application and their personal information will be secured.

STEP 4. The Results

Within expected time, we have developed a model for this telemedicine application. We have successfully combined different functions, designed a user-friendly interface and system that can benefit both the medical units and the patients. It is believed that telemedicine would be more common in the future and hopefully it will act as a remedy for the over-pressure problems of the healthcare system in Hong Kong, especially under the Covid-19 pandemic.

遠程醫療應用程式

第一步. 個案背景

遠程醫療 (Telemedicine) 是醫療衛生產業的新興趨勢，由中國內地及一些海外國家開始，到現在已變得愈來愈普遍。遠程醫療是一個為症狀較輕的患者設立的數碼平台，讓醫生透過視訊聊天為病患提供簡單的診斷服務。 隨著數碼化發展，我們的客戶覺得香港亦有必要推出這款服務，這個應用程式便應運而生。

第二步. 個案挑戰

• 尋找專科醫生的困難：由於求過於供，病人一般較難及時地接受到專科醫生的診症。通常，他們需要先致電診所，查詢醫生的預約狀況以預約看診。他們可能還需要排期一般頗長的時間才能正式得到治療。在中央化及數碼化的預約系統出現前，病患很難可以即時得到及時的診治。除了輪候時間長，距離也是一項患者在選擇不同醫生時須要面對的問題。有時，患者所選到的醫生可能會離自身住處有一段不短的距離，長途跋涉前往去看醫生對他們而言更是雪上加霜。
• 預約服務管理系統：要開發一個遠程醫療平台，我們必需確保數碼平台不會影響到加盟醫生實體診所的運作，數碼平台的存在有助提升醫生們的看診效率，而非妨礙他們本來的營運。為了不妨礙到醫療服務提供者的運營，使他們能更順暢地在遊走在線上線下之間，為患者提供服務。我們團隊需要設法去減低和消除線上和線下預約系統的衝突，亦是開發過程中一個不小的挑戰。
• 個人醫療記錄的開放權限：除非病人親自到診所／醫院了解和查詢，傳統的醫療記錄方式較難讓他們自行保管及查看自己的醫療記錄。當病人轉到新醫生／診所時，由於醫療記錄並不互通，病人並不能自行決定是否要向新醫生展示自己過往的診症記錄，傳統的醫療記錄方式的患者自主權較低。

第三步. 團隊方案

• 中央篩選專科醫生：應用程式中設有排序功能，用家還可以設置他們偏好的時段、醫生專業和患者評分。在設置自己的選擇偏好後，系統便會替他們搜尋符合偏好的醫生人選。若配對成功，用戶甚至能即時在網上付款後與成功配對的醫生進行視像診症。在中央預約系統的幫助下，病患能隨時隨地透過平台找到合適的醫生，更具效率，不需再浪費時間等待，延誤就醫。
• 視像診症技術：如果病患不能外出，他們可以以網上視像形式安在家中讓醫生診症。除了以口述告訴醫生自己的病症，還能效過鏡頭和醫生展示傷口／皮膚症狀，以獲得更準確的診斷。在預期的診症時間到後，病人會先進入視訊等待室 (Waiting Room)，當醫生準備好，雙方便能直接開始一對一的視像診症通話。我們在應用程式內已設設好視像通話及等待室的相關功能，診症時醫患雙方都不需要跳轉到其他通話應用程式，使其成為一體化的遠程醫療應用程序。

• 人性化的系統設計：每家加盟了平台的診所都會有自己專屬的管理員面板。診所負責人可以自行決定開放管理權限予個別員工去協助管理診所版面。醫生／負責管理版面的護士能在診所版面中自行設定可提供診症服務的時間。加盟醫生可以先確認自己的已預約時段，然後在管理面板中勾選出不可用的時段，避免重複預約，從而減少線上和線下預訂的衝突。 如此靈活的設計，確保了線上線下的預約登記都能不衝突地順利進行。

• 患者醫療記錄的自主權：相比起傳統紙本病履，大數據技術能更容易運用到數碼平台上，儲存用家的醫療記錄。用家可以隨時查詢自己的醫療記錄，還可自行選擇是否要向新醫生披露自己的病履記錄。若他們不想向人披露過往診症和處方記錄，也可以在應用程式裡設置，保障個人資料隱私。

第四步. 最終成果

在預期的時間內，我們團隊準時為顧客開發了這個遠程醫療應用程式。成功地結合了各種不同的功能，設計了一個易於使用的界面和系統，醫療單位和患者都能受益。我們相信，遠程醫療行業在未來會變得更加普遍，有望能舒緩本港公立醫療系統壓力過大的問題，尤其是在 2019 新型冠狀病毒 (Covid-19) 的大流行之下。