EIT Health-supported Wellola delivers secure patient portal for COVID-19
Providing a patient portal to communicate about COVID-19
EIT Health-supported venture Wellola provides the patient portal in Ireland to support general practitioners, primary care providers and patients during COVID-19.
What Is the HSE COVID-19 Portal?
The Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) COVID-19 Portal is a simple digital tool designed to optimise clinician and patient safety. This care-enabling technology supports clinicians to keep people well and treat those that are unwell, in the community where possible. Now, more than ever, its aim is also to protect those medical practitioners on the front-line offering care.
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Available here, Irish General Practitioners and primary care providers can set up an account in the portal to offer their patients secure online communications.
Core Features Include:
- Online Booking
- Video Consultation Software (in app or via text or e-mail)
- Secure Messaging
- Form Completion to assist in triaging
- Resource Sharing
- Payment Functionalities (e-invoicing, payment in video-screen,etc.)
- E-prescriptions (coming soon)
HSE Patient App
The patient experience of the portal is via an app, downloadable at the HSE COVID-19 patient communication portal website. An iOS and Android version is launching next week. Patients, once given access by their clinician, can download and log in to the app to manage all communication and share clinical information.
What are the potential benefits from using the HSE COVID-19 portal?
- Mitigating risk: The tool allows for triaging of patients before they attend a general practitioner practice or hospital (e.g. form filling, online booking, video consultation features)
- Remote care provision: caring for patients who are self-isolating (e.g. messaging, video, sharing resource features)
- Maintaining workforce/flexible working: all data is hosted centrally in the cloud, so should clinicians (e.g. general practitioners or consultants) be required self-isolate, they can still contribute to caring for patients remotely should they wish to.
- Connected Database: all stakeholders (community, primary care, general practitioners, hospitals) could potentially access/track/share patient information for victims of COVID-19 via this single, central cloud-based system.
EIT Community support
Recent winners of the IMSTA 'Integrated Care Award', Wellola, has been backed and funded by the EIT and Enterprise Ireland.
We’re really passionate about providing healthcare providers with the tools to deliver professional healthcare anywhere. Online consultation systems in both the public and private sector would assist in maximising available resources, retaining or re-engaging talented staff, facilitate triaging of waiting lists and increasing reach to remote, underserviced areas.
Sonia Neary, CEO, Wellola
Based at the Guinness Enterprise Centre in Dublin, Wellola has collaborated with other Irish-based entities such as Stripe, DNM Group and AWS Ireland to enhance the functionality, security and local hosting of its system.
HSE Digital Transformation Team
Established in early 2019 and led by Martin Curley, the HSE Digital Transformation team is a division of the HSE Office of the CIO and actively supports disruptive digital health technologies to enable better patient, staff and system efficiency. The team have a simple vision: 'to unleash the digital capability of the HSE and associated ecosystem to drive breakthrough improvements in health service efficiency, effectiveness and experience'.
We are thankful and pleased to partner with Sonia Neary and Wellola in providing a video consultation solutions for general practitioners which will be a key tool in providing remote care and a critical tool in helping avoid further contagion of COVID-19. We encourage general practitioner’s and other healthcare prolearyviders to access and use this service which is provided at cost.
Dr. Martin Curley, HSE Digital Transformation Office
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