in the time of COVID and beyond with uConsultTM homas Edison said: “There’s a way to do it better – find it.” In a time of unprecedented change the pressure to adapt has resulted in some remarkable healthcare developments, to do things not only differently but, in some cases, better.
“As a healthcare administrator, we saw a broad spectrum of challenges that arose quickly once the pandemic had hit our shores, which brought about the need for long-term solutions,” says Dr Johan Pretorius, CEO of Universal Healthcare. “Perhaps the most notable of challenges at ground level was the sudden change in the dynamic between provider and patient. Where once a
face-to-face interaction was so essential, caution on the part of both parties now meant that consultations in rooms would only take place if absolutely necessary. This had a far-reaching financial impact for doctors, who could no longer practise as they had before, while the break in continuity of care often resulted in patients neglecting their general health.”
Innovation for accessibility Dr Pretorius notes that while telemedicine is not
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a new field, the legislation passed by the HPCSA along with the sudden need for a streamlined virtual consultation offering, provided a timely opportunity to develop uConsult™. “With the advent of COVID-19 the need for a sustainable alternative consultation model became clear. Following discussions with key stakeholders at various schemes we moved quickly, engaging our international innovation team based in Silicon
We take a look at how, in a time of necessity, Universal Healthcare and uConsult successfully connected patients with healthcare providers using safe, scalable microservices technology
The uConsult platform was built to be
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totally agnostic – not aligning itself to any medical
BHF360° | DECEMBER 2021
scheme, nor indeed requiring patients to have medical scheme membership.
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Transforming healthcare consultations
