GDML Accelerates Productivity

July 15, 2014

GDML Accelerates Productivity, Reduces Costs

Telemed Diagnostic Management Inc. (TeleMED) is pleased to announce a successful completion to the ECG Enhancement Project that it collaboratively undertook with its long-time client, Gamma Dynacare Medical Laboratories (GDML).

GDML and other Ontario healthcare providers faced significant reductions in revenue when the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care reduced its reimbursements for ECG tests in 2012.  GDML had been using TeleMED technology for a number of years to manage its ECG test data.  Therefore, when it looked for ways to cut costs to offset these reductions, it turned to TeleMED for advice and ideas.  As a result, TeleMED and GDML launched a project to interface GDML’s order entry system to its TeleMED application, to standardize and automate work flow at GDML’s Patient Service Centres and to centralize and automate the process of distributing test results to GDML’s referring physicians.

The ECG Enhancement Project has produced positive results for GDML.  ECG operations have been simplified and accelerated at Patient Service Centres, providing more options for allocating human resources.  Thanks to the expanded use of TeleMED’s cloud-based ViTELflo application, GDML has achieved far better visibility into its operations and can now quickly bottlenecks in the processing stream.  Storing and retrieving test data is standardized and accelerated.  GDML delivers a service to its physicians and patients that is more responsive and more reliable.

Finding the sweet spot!

May 29, 2014

Will Diagnostics for Doctors find the sweet spot?

Recently, TeleMED launched Diagnostics for Doctors, a new service initiative that responds to the growing capability of Family Physicians to provide enhanced diagnostic testing from their premises.

Today’s environment of constrained resources encourages Family Physicians to aggregate into larger practice groups with larger patient rosters.  At the same time, an aging patient population is demanding that care be delivered in environments that are more comfortable than the traditional hospital and diagnostic testing sites.

Diagnostics for Doctors targets that sweet spot where these trends intersect.  Physicians can now offer their patients the convenience of office diagnostic services, using the same technology that has been used in traditional community testing environments.  Our turnkey solution includes setup, training, 24/7 technical support and access to the expertise of Specialists on demand.

Our message to Family Physicians is simple:  “Refer Your Tests, Not Your Patients.”

Alpha Laboratories Connects

May 22, 2014

Alpha Laboratories Connects With TeleMED

Telemed Diagnostic Management Inc. (TeleMED) is pleased to announce that it has installed its ECG connectivity technology in two of Alpha Laboratories (Alpha) diagnostic testing sites, thereby allowing tests from those sites to be transmitted to remote Cardiologists for interpretation.

Alpha has been a long-time user of TeleMED’s Holter monitoring solution but has only recently started to deploy TeleMED’s ECG solution. However, the organizations plan to expand the deployment to other Alpha sites as the opportunities present themselves.

Alberta Netcare Now Connected

April 1, 2014

Alberta Netcare and TeleMED Now Connected

Telemed Diagnostic Management Inc. (TeleMED) is pleased to announce that its technology is now interfaced to Alberta Netcare. This interface is the result of a collaborative partnership among TeleMED’s client, DynaLIFEDx, Alberta Health Services and TeleMED.

Alberta Netcare is the name for all the projects related to the provincial Electronic Health Record (EHR) — a secure and confidential electronic system of Alberta patients’ health information.

Previous to the implementation of this interface, DynaLIFEDx was sending a copy of the text portion only, of ECG Reports, from its Laboratory Information System (LIS) to Alberta Netcare. Since the implementation of this interface, copies of entire ECG Reports, including images of ECG tracings, are being transmitted directly from TeleMED’s ViTELflo application to Alberta Netcare. As a result, additional key health information is available to those who provide healthcare to DynaLIFEDx patients.

TeleMED Targets Family Physicians

March 3, 2014

Refer your tests, not your patients“Refer Your Tests, Not Your Patients!” That’s the call-to-action that TeleMED will be using when it launches its new Diagnostics for Doctors marketing initiative next month.

Diagnostics for Doctors is a low cost, low risk service offering, aimed at Family Physicians who routinely refer their patients for non-invasive diagnostic testing. The service allows these Physicians to test patients in their office without taking on more staff or more space.

TeleMED offers Family Physicians a complete turnkey solution, including medical devices, on demand connectivity for transmitting tests to their preferred Specialists for interpretation and a multi-modality platform for managing their tests. The equipment and technology is supported by a complete suite of services that includes installation, training, 24/7 hotline and next day repair/replacement of equipment. The entire service offering is provided on a pay-as-you-go basis and the service can be terminated on demand.

“Diagnostics for Doctors” is a win-win for physicians and their patients”, says Asa Lebel, TeleMED’s President. “Patients receive a more responsive, more convenient service from their physicians. In turn, their physicians enjoy a more robust, more productive practice and the opportunity to add revenue for those who participate in a fee-for-service reimbursement model.”

For more information about Diagnostics for Doctors, visit www.diagnosticsfordoctors.com or contact TeleMED at (800) 543-8151.

QUS Accelerates Digital Strategy

February 26, 2014

QUS Accelerates Digital Strategy With TeleMED

Quality Underwriting Services (QUS), a leader in the Canadian paramedical sector, has again chosen TeleMED products and services to move towards digital management of its ECG data. In August of last year, QUS placed an order for TeleMED’s mobile ECG testing units and are currently using those units in Alberta. Early this year, QUS followed up with an order for its Manitoba region.

“This order confirms the value of TeleMED’s electronic point-of-care testing solution”, said the company’s President, Asa Lebel. “Our solution offers a number of operational and security advantages over telephonic solutions. Users can view and qualify tracings before transmission. Tracings can be transmitted at any time during any day. We provide paramedics with 24/7 live support. In addition, we provide a secure, compliant environment for acquiring and managing confidential patient data. For all these reasons, we expect our footprint in the paramedical sector to grow significantly during the next year.”

Successful ECG Interface

February 10, 2014

A couple of months ago, I wrote our involvement in a complex interface project and told you about some of the challenges we faced because we had to make some very significant customizations to our own application and we had some very tight, “cannot be extended” timelines to work against.

Since then, we completed those customizations and the interface and successfully navigated the User Acceptance Testing phase, all within the prescribed timelines. In mid-November the interface went live without a hitch. Needless to say, both TeleMED and our client were overjoyed and proud of the successful launch of this interface. Hundreds of ECG tests were now streaming daily from our client’s TeleMED solution directly into a provincial Electronic Health Record (EHR), available to patients and health professionals in that province.

Just when we were ready to put this project behind us, our client contacted us with a new customization request. Our client now wanted us to engineer a “block” to identify test results from a certain category of patients and prevent those results from entering the EHR. As a result, we had another customization to engineer, with another tight timeline.

Well, I’m happy to report that the “block” was engineered, tested and went live in mid-December. After almost two months of monitoring the performance of our interface, I am also happy to report that it is performing as intended, day in and day out. Thousands of our client’s patients now have a more complete record in their provincial EHR because it now includes their ECG test results.

Gamma-Dynacare Extends Service

February 3, 2014

Gamma-Dynacare Extends With TeleMED

Telemed Diagnostic Management Inc. (TeleMED), a leader in sophisticated management solutions for non-invasive medical diagnostic data, is pleased to announce that Gamma-Dynacare Medical Laboratories has extended TeleMED’s support contract for ECG testing services.

The five year extension provides support for Gamma-Dynacare’s strategies for fostering growth and productivity. It also leverages Gamma-Dynacare’s logistic resources and increases its ability to deliver value-added services quickly to the market.

Asa Lebel, President of TeleMED, commented:  “This contract extension confirms our reputation for being a trusted partner that helps clients build deeper relationships with their physicians and patients.  It also recognizes TeleMED’s ability to provide value-focused solutions that drive growth for our clients in competitive markets.”

Don’t burden clients with data

November 12, 2013

In my role of managing relationships with our clients, I spend a lot of time demonstrating the array of operational and clinical data that is captured, the ease of creating reports containing this data and identifying how these reports deliver real-time feedback on important operational issues.

Without exception, they are impressed at the nature of the data that is available and at how easy it is to access this data. Despite their enthusiasm, however, they are slow to “dive in” and start creating reports. Often, we “tease” them by creating sample reports and forwarding the reports to them for review. The reaction we usually get is “Thank you. It looks like valuable information, but I just don’t have time to review it.”

Recently, we have started to conduct our own analysis of the information and to include the analysis and any recommendations with the reports.

Finally, we are getting the reaction that we were looking for. While our clients have little time to review the data in the reports, they find the time to “skip to the bottom line” and digest what the data is telling them and ideas on what they should do about it.

The lesson for me is that I had lost sight of the fact that electronic data management is supposed to make the work of stakeholders more productive. While it is useful to make data easily accessible, the value of that accessibility is severely diluted if we don’t give those stakeholders an easily-digestible summary of what the data means and suggestions on actions that might be taken.

The automation of the process of acquiring, interpreting and reporting a diagnostic test is well-developed in the marketplace. However, healthcare providers also need information on the efficiency and quality of their operations. For this reason, I believe that the next wave of innovation for developers of vital sign management technology should be the inclusion of automated analytic functionality.

First Year With Shouldice Completed

November 4, 2013

TeleMED Completes 1st Year With Shouldice

Telemed Diagnostic Management Inc. (TeleMED) recently marked the completion of its first year of providing an ECG solution to Shouldice Hospital, just north of Toronto.

Shouldice is the global leader in hernia repair. Using a unique method, it repairs over 7,000 hernias each year and its 99.5% lifetime success rate for primary inquinal hernias sets the gold standard for medical professionals around the world.

ECG tests are administered to each patient as part of the pre-admission process and as required during the hospital stay. However, because of the specialized nature of the Hospital, there is no Cardiologist on the premises. The deployment of a TeleMED solution gave the Hospital round-the-clock access to cardiology expertise and instant access to the interpretation of a test as soon as it was reviewed by the Cardiologist.

“The addition of Shouldice Hospital as a client marked the entry of TeleMED into the hospital sector,” said Asa Lebel, President of TeleMED. “We had previously stayed away from this sector, but the success of our partnership with this Hospital has demonstrated that there is value that we can bring to small and medium-sized hospitals.”