Revolutionizing Healthcare With A Medical Communication Tool

“Three to ten times cheaper”

“It’s not that OutSystems, Vonage and LINKITSYSTEMS are offering something unique,” he continues. “Almost all leading communication tools like Zoom and Teams offer a HIPAA-compliant version of their tool. What makes it different is mainly the costs. Vonage is working with a different pricing model that bills for users and less on usage. This means it is three to ten times cheaper than any competitor I found. An ideal solution for two customers we are providing with a special medical communication tool.”

LINKIT’s first Vonage project

For LINKITSYSTEMS, the project with Seecure is the first one after integrating the Vonage component with OutSystems. Principal William Antunes, from LINKITSYSTEMS OutSystems team, has worked on it for the last few months. “We are now very close to the launch of the MVP (Minimal Viable Product). It will work almost the same as Zoom or Teams. You can call, video call, chat, schedule and send files. The main part of the work was to integrate the Vonage component in the existing framework from Seecure, but we also improved the component.”

Puzzling with 8 kilobytes pieces

“The biggest challenge was to set up a functionality for file transfers. This component was not yet available. However, they have another HIPAA-compliant API, which we could use. The only problem with this API is that it can only send signals to participants with a maximum size of 8 kilobytes. Almost nothing. It took some creativity to find a solution. We now break down every file into small pieces, send them through, and put them back together at the receiver. This all goes really fast, and the user will not notice it. For us, though, it was a complex puzzle to solve.”

Online consulting made possible

For Keith, this puzzle was solved for a reason. “The ability to transfer files safely is especially important for our clients. Most of the communication we expect will be between doctors, nurses, and patients. However, communication between doctors and other doctors or nurses is also important. When a patient needs surgery, a doctor must approve the nurse. However, the doctor is not always at the same physical location. Especially now with the coronavirus pandemic. Our solution makes it possible for a doctor to meet with the nurse, discuss the patient, send patient information back and forth, and sign off digitally for the operation.”

Lifesaving communication

In Brazil, the use case is different. Keith: “Our client needs a just-in-time ordering system. They do manufacturing for neurosurgeons. When someone, for example, has a motorcycle crash causing brain damage, it’s possible to cut out a piece of the brain replacing it with an implant. This is done by taking a scan and making a 3d print implant. You can imagine fast and accurate communication is hugely important. With the Vonage component, sending a scan, discussing any specifics, and signing off digitally and safely is possible. Online communication this way can really save lives.”

Now more than ever…

Because Brazil and the USA have been hit hard by the coronavirus, the project has come to a whole new dimension. “Every medical facility that acquired a safe communication tool last year is extremely happy,” Keith emphasizes. “As explained by these two use cases, even without corona, this tool has a big market. Now, with Corona, everyone wants it. Needs to have it. It is a culture changer that will affect the way of working for a long time ahead.”

“Wonderful experience”

According to Keith, having a Dutch company create a typical American solution worked out really well. “It has been wonderful! You speak funny, but the work is really good and efficient. LINKITSYSTEMS gives accurate time reporting, we don’t have to provide specifications in massive details, we were able to speed things up in communications. All remotely. The tool was developed on time, and it looks spectacular!”

Solid backbone system

“In our last demo, we had a setup representing a real case environment with six people communicating with each other successfully. We still have to do a lot of stress testing, but I’m really confident in the result. Also, the Vonage component is doing really well. Of course, interference sometimes happens because of a lack of bandwidth, but sound and video quality so far have been outstanding. It seems to me the Vonage component runs on a solid backbone system.”

Ready to launch!

“When the solution set is ready, we will start commercialising it,” Keith finishes. “To do this, we developed a website to promote and offer the product. Our competitive advantage is within the product as a low cost, 256 AES high encryption, Video Streaming product which can be tailored for specific usage in Healthcare, Legal, Manufacturing, and more.”