Transforming care coordination

At present, hospitals have to deal with a whole lot of disconnectivity. Typically, care personnel doesn’t know how their patients are doing before and after surgeries; they don’t have tools to monitor patients and receive up-to-date health information; and they spend an extensive amount of time on communications and paperwork. In addition, patients hardly want to be bystanders in their own treatment: they want to actively participate in decision-making, receive easy-to-follow timely instructions and always know what will happen next in their care path.

Helsinki startup company Buddy Healthcare was founded in late 2015 to help solve these problems. Markus Lind, Chief Sales Officer at Buddy Healthcare, explains that the company drives for a “5-star patient experience”.

“We work to transform pre- and post-surgical care together with our customers,” he says.

High on the company’s trouble-shooting list, one finds the most significant problems hospitals, clinics and patients are facing today: patient adherence to treatment, late cancellations and no-shows, administrative work and care quality.

Desperately seeking data

The first version of the BuddyCare platform was launched in 2016, and the following year, the application was tested by, for example, patients’ families.

“When a family member is in a hospital, our solution serves to keep everybody up to date and guards against uncertainty and anxiety,” Lind says.

Already in the planning phases of the platform, the Buddy team consulted hospitals in Oulu and Helsinki. Collaboration with HUS New Children’s Hospital started in 2018 as digitization of pediatric cardiology care pathways commenced at the hospital.

Markus Lind explains that, previously, the hospital provided pre- and post-procedure guidance and materials via phone calls or mail.

“In the digitized care pathway, the pediatric patients’ parents download our free app where they receive timed pre- and post-procedure materials such as fasting instructions, a video about the procedure, procedure checklists, and administrative forms,” he says.

The mobile app contains also real-time messaging, allowing the parents to contact the care personnel if needed.