Digitize healthcare – Dr. Hein: „Clinics are the key! “
The German health care system is known worldwide for its high performance level in medical treatment. The digitized EvoCare®-treatment is approved and is reimbursed as a standard benefit since 2013. Therefore EvoCare® is the innovator in digitalization of health care treatment!
Patients are able to realize the modern therapy at home. EvoCare® is deployed in prevention, therapy, rehabilitation and for the treatment of elderly!
Being a gold standard method it is possible to deploy EvoCare® worldwide.
EvoCare-TeleTherapy(firmenpresse) - In the interview the inventor of the EvoCare®-TeleTherapy talks about the key to success. He is managing director of EvoCare Telemedizin GmbH which is located in Nuremberg, Germany.
Why are clinics the key?
For years the digital healthcare scene in Europe has tried to solve the main question: How can we take care of our patients at home using telemedical services and at the same time come up with an economical concept so the cost bearers will reimburse it? As is well known cost bearers only pay for treatment performances. They don’t pay for any kind of hardware, software, technology or apps. Our big success was the accreditation of the EvoCare-TeleTherapy. Specific budgets for patient care were made available and now clinics have the chance to use these new budgets. It is the clinics who can now control the digitalization of healthcare from their own houses and extend their sphere to every patient they discharge. They are the key for establishing digitized healthcare services nationwide.
What are clinics doing right now to digitize healthcare?
Almost every clinic works on strategies to become a digital healthcare provider. Platforms are used to collect data and help to improve patient care. Apps are expected to control and bind patients to the clinic. Digitalization is only used as a marketing tool to show patients: “We are a modern clinic”. The problem is that clinics have to finance them on their own – there is no refinancing for those technical marketing tools like apps.
Some clinics already invest in apps and special platforms for their patients. Should they rethink their digital strategy?
Although every clinic knows the strong cost pressure, they are still well advised to go in this direction. But when they do it, they should do it right! Otherwise they will just waste money and also time. You need to do more than putting up apps or hardware to play with. Digitalization as a supplement in healthcare services only has a chance in clinics when you have a well-designed economical strategy with a reimbursed accredited digital treatment-method.
That’s where we can come in. Our TeleTherapy is a novelty. Since it is accredited and reimbursed clinics can generate additional revenue when using this digitized treatment. I believe that TeleTherapy will become a stable component in the clinics’ revenue. In the last years we gathered experience in every part of telemedical treatment. Since our method is already accredited in regular care and tis has already taken care of over thousands of patients through clinics using our TeleTherapy, we know how to answer emerging questions. That’s the reason we work successfully as consultants for clinics and other parties involved.
Why should clinics focus on teletherapy?
Therapy services with 300 million applications in germany are by far the most commonly used services for patients. They include movement therapy, speech therapy, cognitive trainings and more. Therapy is needed in every stage of patient care whether in acute hospitals, rehab clinics or for patients in need of care at home or in a nursery home. Nearly every patient regardless of indication area (i. e. orthopaedics, internal medicine or neurology) receives therapy services as a remedy. In total TeleTherapy can be provided to an enormous amount of patient across all sectors and medical indications. With the help of TeleTherapy a clinic can create an offer to help and treat every patient to his specific needs.
When a clinic offers EvoCare®-TeleTherapy, how many revenues can they count on?
It depends on the clinic. There are reimbursement rates available and, depending on the medical indication, those can raise the revenue per patient by 30 %. This is a significant increase since the necessary expenses are considerably lower. And the crucial point is that it is a new business for clinics. Up until now they lost all their discharged patients. Now they have a chance to change this and keep taking care of their patients even when they go back home.
Can every clinic provide TeleTherapy or do they have to fulfill certain requirements?
Yes, there are binding guidelines we have put together from our gathered experience with our accredited EvoCare®-TeleTherapy over the last 15 years. So far every clinic had a different understanding on how TeleTherapy works and this has led to some difficulties. That is the reason why we put together our guidelines and insist on supporting clinics in a guided start. This guiding principle is very helpful for clinics and necessary for quality management. On the other hand the clinic doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel, can rely on proven processes and still focus on the important part: their own therapy contents specifically designed for their patients.
What exactly is this EvoCare®-TeleTherapy?
The EvoCare®-TeleTherapy is an accredited treatment method that combines a classical face-to-face treatment with a special telemedical treatment. Through TeleTherapy clinics can keep taking care of their patients after discharge, therapists can tend to their patients intensively and senior citizens can stay at home longer. Our well organized treatment processes are digitized and independent from the kind of device used. Clinical studies from cost bearers have proven that they are as medically effective as classic therapy.
Although the EvoCare®-TeleTherapy-method has nothing to do with hard- and software like apps and platforms - although it uses exactly this technology to successfully treat patients at home. It is a new therapist-patient relationship. Specially trained therapists supervise and motivate the patient and adapt his exercises during his treatment instead of leaving the patient by himself. The patients can plan their time at home freely and do their exercises diligently knowing that their therapist gives his feedback straight from the clinic. The taking-care and the close connection to the clinic is the key to the good compliance rates of this treatment method. The patients feel well looked after and they love it.
How long did it take to get the EvoCare®-TeleTherapy accredited in regular care?
We started at Siemens about 20 years ago and designed initial drafts of telemedical therapy in rehabilitation. Since 1997 we conducted several dozen studies in the fields of speech therapy, neuropsychology, physical therapy, internal medicine and Ambient Assisted Living. To get the EvoCare®-TeleTherapy accredited as a treatment method we had to prove effectiveness in comparison with already established treatment processes and verify economic efficiency for both cost bearers and clinics. As a result of the close cooperation with cost bearers numerous official requirements regarding sufficient and necessary supervision, accessibility, patient safety, data protection and much more were defined. Looking back, all of them were indispensable.
Who are your competitors?
We are the innovation leader and our TeleTherapy is the only telemedical treatment which is reimbursed in regular care. Currently there’s only technology providers or technical offers like apps for self-pay patients. It took us 15 years of development to go from a technical solution to an accredited treatment method – this is an evolution of care (EvoCare). Even when someone manages to understand all our experience and copy it, he would still have to go through the same audit criteria as we did. I think no one will manage this under a period of five to ten years.
A lot of patients are using smartphones and all kinds of different apps on a daily basis today, but you still deliver them special loan devices. Wouldn’t the EvoCare®-TeleTherapy be even easier as an app?
It would be easier, but one of the requirements for the accreditation in the regular care of the German Pension Insurance was a total prohibition of apps using the patient’s own devices as well as a complete ban of the internet. We completed a renewed check of data protection only in 2017. The “prohibition” still exists. Also in using the patient’s own devices you cannot guarantee accessibility, patient safety and supervision.
Just recently I read about a prescription for an app or in a clinic. Do they have different requirements?
You have to keep the difference between a model project and regular care in mind. In a model project you can use and try basically everything. What I am talking about is regular care. I know it would be easier for us, it we didn’t have to provide all the loan-devices for the patients, but therewith it realizes an enormous advantage. Everything is super easy and even elderly and totally unexperienced patients can use it. Technical problems are as low as 0.1 %. TeleTherapy is taken seriously by the patients resulting in compliance rates from over 80 %.
Is it possible to design EvoCare®-TeleTherapy as an app or for use on a platform?
Yes, but you have to be able to still follow all the steps in the accredited treatment process. We already had apps 10 years ago, but what benefit is an app for you when nobody wants to pay you for it? Cost bearers only pay for a treatment and most patients’ minds in Germany are set on the idea of the fully comprehensive insurance in healthcare. It may well be different in the lifestyle market, but that’s not where we want to go. We don’t want to be “just another app” to play with. We want to be taken seriously as a medical treatment and help every patient to access quality treatment no matter when or where they are.
How do you see the future of the EvoCare®-TeleTherapy?
As I said before, patients love this therapy-method. I believe that our TeleTherapy will become a solid parameter in healthcare. Additionally to acute and rehab treatments the outpatient sector and nursing will take care especially of senior citizens. With TeleTherapy the elderly or patients in need of care can stay in their own home for a longer time. Private medical insurances will develop new insurance rates and open up an easy entrance into telemedical therapy. Our goal is to have TeleTherapy in every 20th household by 2020.
Next week you will be visited by a Chinese delegation. Aren’t you afraid that they will copy your business concept?
No. We will guide on of the biggest provider of rehab in China through Bavarian and Austrian clinics. What they will see about the TeleTherapy is only, to put it into technical terms, the frontend. The underlying steps like therapy content, quality management, training, instruction and organization are the keys to success, but not fully understandable on such a short tour. That’s why we are relaxed. Afterwards we can support them in establishing and operating their clinics in China and also involve other German companies.
Can investors invest in EvoCare?
An investment in EvoCare is interesting for clinic groups, hardware manufacturers, operators of platforms and other investors who count on the healthcare sector. We believe that clinics who engage app developers from the fields of web design, gaming or e-commerce have a nice looking frontend but are missing the underlying processes for a proper telemedical treatment. Since even doctors and therapists have no experience in the field of telemedical treatment, we offer various training courses. We are the experts to establish TeleTherapy as the clinic’s own cost-efficient offer. We know how to evolve a technology into an accredited and reimbursed treatment method. It’s in our name: EvoCare – The evolution of care.
Are you talking with investors right now?
At the moment we are pursuing a growth strategy. We are currently in discussion with several investors. Going all the way to a stock exchange listing would give everybody the possibility to participate. Nonetheless, interested investors are still welcome to contact us.
Themen in dieser Pressemitteilung:
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
EvoCare – The care evolution
EvoCare is the first and only one to succeed in implementing an eHealth service “EvoCare-Tele-Treatment” into the list of covered services within a health insurance fund. This is the breakthrough for eHealth.
EvoCare® is a registered European trademark.
EvoCare Telemedizin GmbH
Muggenhofer Str. 136
90429 Nürnberg
++49 911 32 38 00
info(at)evocare.de
EvoCare Telemedizin GmbH
Muggenhofer Str. 136
90429 Nürnberg
++49 911 32 38 00
patricia.hein(at)evocare.de
Datum: 08.08.2017 - 15:27 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 555653
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contact information:
Contact person: Patricia Hein
Town:
Nürnberg
Phone: ++49 911 32 38 00
Kategorie:
Healthcare & Medical
Typ of Press Release: Interview
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