Visits to the doctor can be challenging in times of pandemic. The Linz start-up Blockhealth wants to counter this problem and recently started Austria’s first “digital eye clinic”. Eight local doctors have joined forces for this purpose: They enable patients to consult them digitally from home by making an appointment. Among them is Matthias Bolz, head of the University Clinic for Ophthalmology at the KuK Linz and co-founder of Blockhealth. “The need for digital meetings with doctors is increasing,” says managing director Fabian Lichtenstein: For example, findings could be discussed from the couch. Physical examinations can be discussed in advance.
A system is also planned for this year to digitally clarify questions in the Corona case: “Many patients are insecure and do not know whether to see a doctor,” says Lichtenstein. The hotline 1450 is often overloaded. The doctor can not only hear the patient, he can also see them. The basis for these “digital clinics”, which will soon be available for various disciplines, is the Vivellio app developed by Blockhealth: This enables users to digitally save findings, medication, allergies, vaccination records and findings and release them to the doctor if necessary. The Blockhealth team (now eight employees) wants to improve communication between doctors and patients. A physician has an average of seven minutes per patient, says Lichtenstein: The clear presentation enables him to prepare and thus save important time. The sovereignty over the data lies with the patient: they decide what they want to share and for how long. The data are encrypted several times.
More than 100,000 people in German-speaking countries now use the free app. Since October there has also been a paid version of Vivellio for doctors: 15 doctors are on board, 15 are currently registering. The focus should be on this.
App for physiotherapists too
Also planned for this year: Vivellio is also to be activated for non-medical health workers, e.g. for physiotherapists: This can be helpful, for example if patients forget the results.
Source: Nachrichten
