Introduction
The Tele-consultation product of company Navia Life Care is called Navia e-Consult and it has been available since 2016. The solution providers value cost reduction the most. Their business model is B2B and does not have white labelling of the products. They provide both mobile and web-based applications for the doctors. They also provide mobile applications for patient and web-based patient portals.
Size of Healthcare Provider
The solution is useful for the following categories of healthcare providers:
a) Individual Clinician
b) Clinics
c) Nursing Home/Small Hospital (less than 100 beds)
d) Large Hospital
Level of Specialization
The solution can be used in the following settings of specialisation of clinical services:
a) Primary care
b) Secondary care
Expert Panel Evaluation
The application UI/UX interface for doctors and patients has a steep learning curve and a little bit of technology knowledge is required. Once familiarized the platform is easy to use and supports data entry with advanced features like voice typing. The application has an automated chatbot facility to guide patients, and a call center facility is available.
Doctors can interact with patients in only synchronous manner. The tele-consultation solution provides multimode interaction i.e. audio, video, Email and link sharing. Doctors could interact with patients using audio and video call while simultaneously taking notes i.e. noting clinical condition, writing prescription and entering data concurrently in the interfaced Electronic Medical Record (EMR) (if present). Doctors can write free text notes. The speciality templates of notes are not available, but doctors can store favorites (prescription and notes). This solution supports basic tele-consultation clinical workflow well. Digital signatures are not supported, the application supports adding image (scan) signature in prescription.
Phone number is used as a unique ID for patients. The patients need to know clinic code/ doctor code and then only they can book appointments. Admin role is there but it cannot initiate the video call. Doctors are required to accept appointments, i.e., doctors control the booking of appointments, initiation of video calls. Rescheduling and cancellation of appointments possible. Payment related guidelines for patients are customizable by doctors. Consent is taken at time of making payment. Multiparty video conferencing and referral feature is not available.
Patients get communication messages and links on whatsapp (appointment alert). To provide good consulting experience to patients, the waiting room facility is there on the patient side of application. Patients have the facility to upload documents and enter vitals which doctors can access. Patients can access prescription and booking access without application download (whatsapp integration) so the installation of mobile application is not mandatory for patients. Pill reminders and follow up reminders features are there.
It is claimed that the solution has integration of SNOMED, ICD-10 for diagnosis and LOINC for observation codes in diagnostic reports. No data exchange standards are supported.
The solution design ensures that the patient has control over past records in terms of sharing data across providers. Patients can unlink doctors if they do not want to share any report with them. Care-giver and family member accounts supported in application as doctors can consult multiple people on the same mobile number. Caregivers can book appointments on behalf of patients. Guidelines on preparation of calls are available for patients.
Unique Features
The solution also ensures following features:
a) Chat bot
b) Voice typing
Solution Maturity Level
a) TPG compliant: 3a
b) Feature complexity: 5 (Partial)