CRM company Salesforce announced a telehealth solution for Salesforce Health Cloud yesterday that enables a two-way video chat giving patients the ability to connect face-to-face with their care teams from any mobile device. This two-way video chat for Health Cloud — powered by Salesforce SOS – claims to deliver more timely, convenient and contextual care, increasing overall patient satisfaction.
Health Cloud is a patient relationship management solution that was released earlier this year to provide a comprehensive view of the patient, smarter patient management and connected patient engagement. Salesforce’s new telehealth solution is designed to extend these capabilities by enabling providers to connect directly to patients and share their screens on iOS or Android mobile devices.
“Consumers today expect to connect with their healthcare providers in the same way they FaceTime with family members. Providers who can provide the best platform for engagement — on the devices patients use day-to-day — will find the most success in this highly connected world,” said Joshua Newman, M.D., GM, Salesforce Healthcare and Life Sciences.
“By bringing two-way video to Health Cloud, we can both help patients get the engagement they’re craving and enable providers to improve outcomes at lower costs.”
According to the company, more than 191 million smartphones are in use in the United States today, and this trend is changing consumers’ expectations across all industries, including how they want to interact with their healthcare providers.
Salesforce’s recent “2016 Connected Patient Report” revealed that 62% of U.S. respondents with health insurance and a primary care provider would be open to virtual-care treatments, such as a video conference call for non-urgent matters.
Real-time care to patients
With two-way video for Health Cloud, the company explains that care team members and patients can immediately see and talk to each other about general health matters — such as checking-in on a chronic condition or discussing preventive tips for staying healthy — using the camera on a patient’s smartphone.
Patients just need to press a button within their providers’ Health Cloud mobile app to engage the smartphone’s camera and connect with their caregivers in real-time, from any location. Care teams can assess problems directly, provide additional educational resources or schedule an office follow-up.
Furthermore, Health Cloud automatically pulls up the patient’s medical profile, including cases, records and family data, so that providers can provide highly personalized and contextualized support.
“Integrated patient care solutions represent the future of healthcare technology and present a massive opportunity for the industry to digitally transform and create a stronger relationship between patients, care providers and practitioners,” said Robert Van Tuyl, Chief Innovation Officer, Easter Seals Bay Area, a Salesforce Health Cloud customer.
“Easter Seals Bay Area and Salesforce are collaborating to lead the way in the industry in terms of trailblazing better ways to deliver services, and we are excited to be a part of this next wave of healthcare innovation.”
With this new launch, Salesforce aims to increase quality-of-care, save time, lowers costs associated with expensive doctor or emergency room visits, and reduce readmission penalties for providers.
Salesforce is working closely with its ecosystem of partners in the implementation of its new telehealth solution in Health Cloud, including Persistent Systems, Silverline and other partners deploying and extending the capabilities of two-way video in the product.