Despite incredible advancements in health care, a lot of the behind-the-scenes processes and scheduling are still performed with the ol’ pen and paper.
But Quebec’s PetalMD has become the health industry’s go-to source for cloud-based applications, and its AI-powered web platform is automating the creation of physician schedules and maximizing their time with patients. The PetalMD Web Platform is this year’s best healthcare solution for CDN’s Channel Innovation Awards.
Patrice Gilbert, founder and CEO at PetalMD, says the firm’s mission is to improve healthcare through IT.
“We cannot keep throwing money at the problem without working on efficiency,” he says. “At PetalMD, the entire team is dedicated to improve healthcare through mobile and AI technology.” The company’s early adoption of the programming language TypeScript, adds Gilbert, has allowed them to innovate faster than anyone else in the digital healthcare space.
The PetalMD network, built on Microsoft Azure, allows thousands of healthcare professionals across the globe to synchronize medical schedules while maintaining high levels of security through multiple layers of encryption. Customers can also build dashboards with Microsoft BI, a business analytics service. The PetalMD Web Platform is made up of three main functions: PetalBooking, a patient and physician scheduling system that automatically sends confirmation notices when a booking is made; PetalScheduling, a collaborative scheduling system for groups of physicians; and PetalHospital, an easy-to-access on-call list that also synchronizes updated department on-call schedules to the hospital-wide list.
“Our R&D teams are also looking into ways to maximize several Microsoft components to continue innovating, including with Microsoft’s AI platform to build unique healthcare solutions, and the Microsoft Teams SDK to integrate messaging and video components into a telemedicine framework,” according to Gilbert.
Thanks to PetalMD’s platform, a Toronto hospital with a combined total of 1,400 physicians and residents was able to save nearly $590,000 over a five-year period. (Considering costs of the online platform minus the hospital’s total savings). According to the hospital, physicians and residents started to make a return on its investment in the PetalMD Web Platform by the second year.