RAP media thread., page-2840

Many thanks @RelaxedWarrior. Just adding the text to go with audio from the site you provided.

One of the great things about broader acceptance of telehealth is that, in theory, more patients have the potential to access healthcare more easily and that's great as a broad sweeping positioning statement, but the “delivery of healthcare” is much more than just having a consultation where a doctor speaks to a patient.

A lot of the conversation about increasing telehealth is about how to take an in-person consultation and shift it to a video or phone call. But it’s much more than that. What if you needed a blood test or a urine sample or a chest x-ray? All these investigations that are required to confirm a diagnosis for a patient - can these be done under the umbrella of telehealth?

Well, there are some good examples of it already, and it's a critical step in the process of continuing the trend of increasing the acceptance of telehealth in Australia.

In this episode, Pete chats with Kirsty Garrett from Doctors on Demand and Adam Brett from ResApp. They explore how telehealth can help take some strain off the healthcare system by reducing referrals, and at the same time improve diagnosis rates across the country and beyond.

What brought ResApp Dx and Doctors on Demand Together?

Looking back at the types of services that Doctors on Demand has been providing over the past few years, 39% of all their consults have been related to respiratory diseases. As such, Kirsty and her team have been looking for ways that they can better support clinicians and deliver an improved clinical experience for patients, particularly for those that are suffering from a broad range of respiratory conditions.

Doctors on Demand has been speaking with ResApp for some time now and liked the nature of the evidence-based approach that they've taken in developing their testing and their diagnostics and also their integration framework, which is perfect for telehealth platforms like Doctors on Demand. Kirsty is quite excited to be able to have an integrated service now available for their patients.

Was this Collaboration Part of ResApp’s Roadmap?

Simply put, yes, ResApp Health is presumably twelve to eighteen months into its commercialisation, and though the company is working with a couple of companies globally, wanted to collaborate with Australian partners that could get them into some fairly significant areas of corporates, and Doctors on Demand has a platform that is certifiably unique in its proposition and how it works with different corporates and its end patient base. By working together, ResApp Health is now in the position to use some of the data that they have, as well to help along with their long-term strategy.

The Workflow of Doctors on Demand & ResApp’s Platforms

Patients will go onto the Doctors on Demand platform, which is a completely digital end-to-end-enabled experience for the patient and the clinician, providing 24/7 virtual service in primary care. They will nominate the reason for the discussion. If they put in anything related to cough or respiratory, then they will be invited to conduct a respiratory diagnostic test, which is a ResApp test.

The GPs will receive the details of this assessment on their existing portals and they will receive a fresh screen that provides the results of that individual’s test. It's a far greater experience for both patient and clinician because there is another layer of information. Additionally, doctors are able to do a much better job within the virtual space through the aid of this solution.

The Same Type Of Service in a More Traditional Healthcare Setting

That is an intriguing point because looking at the stethoscope that is 213 years old now and there have not been too numerous advancements past that. So, when you go into your normal discussion with the GP, they will put a stethoscope on your chest and try to hear your lung sounds. Whereas, what ResApp is doing now is to allow patients to take their mobile phones and turn them into medical devices.

The outcome levels that sensitivity and specificity range between eighty-five and early ninety per cent. It may seem like something out of the movies; however, this great technological advancement has allowed ResApp to enhance the quality of patient outcomes with their unique approach that has gained such high results.

Many of the people who use the Doctors on Demand platform have a large regional and remote workforce, and as such, these employees need virtual care; the option of a doctor with a stethoscope in their hand is not always viable for them. This type of additional support for the clinician makes that overall service proposition much better for everyone. ResApp’s overall aim is to bring care to those who desperately need it and through their collaboration with Doctors on Demand who service numerous regional and remote communities, they are able to do just that.

Capturing More than Just Respiratory Sounds

The goal is to enhance the clinician's ability to diagnose and treat virtually. This technology is not just bringing a solution to the table for telehealth and remote areas. It provides a complete package where a patient can get the same level of care that they would from going into their GP’s office. In essence, this solution is not to replace a clinician; it is made to assist the clinician in getting a better outcome by triaging patients.

Over 60% of the tests they have conducted since the platform went live have indicated a respiratory disease and this is evidence of the solution’s accuracy and helpfulness.

Boosting the Clinician's Workflow

Doctors on Demand and ResApp take the generated data from the ResApp tool and present that in the world that the GP already exists. GPs get to look at patients via video consultation plus the information that was collected through the platform’s medical analysis.

The Acceptance of Remote Diagnostics in Telehealth

Doctors on Demand was launched six years ago and at that time it took a lot of convincing to get GPs on board. Now a lot of doctors are early adopters, therefore, with the initial webinar for ResApp, there were clinicians who were already tech-aware and interested in the telehealth solution. Doctors on Demand’s cohort of clinicians are effectively pre-qualified to want to embrace technology.

Additionally, this widespread acceptance may be a result of the work that ResApp and Doctors on Demand have done within the telehealth space over the last two years due to COVID-19. This shows an increase in the acceptance of remote diagnosis in telehealth and it will only grow over the next few years.

Is AI Helping to Drive the Adoption of Digital Diagnostics?

AI can certainly assist with improving the algorithms that are already available and the way that developers build those algorithms out for the future. It's exciting because if you look at what is being done now with AI, it signifies that there are endless possibilities. The sensitivity and specificity range that ResApp has for a lot of those respiratory areas will experience incremental changes that occur because of what they can do around the AI and the machine learning components.

Scaling into More Areas

Doctors on Demand has commercial partnerships with experts in the various health segments that are key to their strategy. They have partnered with ResApp around digital diagnostics and ResMed around sleep and fatigue management. So it's safe to say they are looking at different categories within the healthcare sector, including asthma and smoking cessation, that they can add value to improve how care is delivered.

Making these Tools Accessible and Easy-to-use Globally

Simplicity is the key and that is one of the greatest features built into the ResApp DX tool; simplicity. As such, this tool is currently being used in several settings and locations, including

• the remote parts of Kenya

• emergency room triage.

ResApp DXis used some very unique settings and it's all built on the back of that simplicity and ease of use.

What to Expect from Doctors on Demand for 2022 and Beyond

With the aim to continue improving patient experience, Doctors on Demand is about to relaunch a whole new patient UX, a whole new patient flow for doctor appointments, for its asynchronous repeat prescription service, and embedding and integrating things like the ResApp. Kirsty and the team are also very excited about their very big web launch coming up. They also have some other commercial partnerships that they will be announcing soon.

Getting ResApp into People’s Hands

Without things like reimbursement, it is challenging not just for the provider, but also for a tool like this; however, private telehealth providers have done a fantastic job so far. The ResApp team over the next couple of months will work on how they can get that reimbursement piece up and running. But there needs to be more clarity from the government around what's going to happen with platforms like Doctors on Demand and those funding mechanisms.

The focus of ResApp for this Year and Beyond?

ResApp did some COVID research in India and the US and is now awaiting those results to help determine what they can do around building algorithms out for the diagnosis of COVID-19. If they get to that point where they develop an algorithm that can see alongside the suite of current testing such as PCR tests to diagnose and screen for COVID-19, that's going to be a really massive change for not just their business, but the way the condition is managed moving forward.