VITALITY
needs its technology to integrate with the partners it has within the Vitality Programme , such as Caffé Nero , ODEON and Vue .
The next process has been to integrate the relevant health and wellness data into medical care . Klintworth began working on developing the first virtual GP service back in 2015 , at a time when these kinds of appointments were largely unheard of . Yet , now , after the pandemic has caused millions of face-to-face appointment cancellations , the forward-thinking moves Vitality made in this direction are now setting an example to other health providers .
“ If I just look back at the GP market that I surveyed at that time , 50 % of GPs were against telehealth , 50 % were for it . It was age and gender agnostic , which was surprising . Yet , customers recognised it as a really important route of access for GP services . Following a market review , we identified US partner second MD , who did the initial application development for the virtual GP service and outsourced the medical service to a UK GP provider .”
Klintworth says that in continuing to drive scalability , member experience and digital innovation , Vitality recently partnered with Livi , a Swedish-based digital company , to provide its digital GP service . Livi is working with a number of NHS Primary Care Trusts , which ensures they understand the challenge to deliver an exceptional customer experience in digital healthcare .
He then emphasises that it ’ s about more than having convenient access to a GP . “ We devised a new pathway so these GPs could make onward referrals where a member needs it , as well as training the GPs to prescribe ‘ wellness ’.” GPs , he stresses , need to have visualisation of patients ’ health checks , their activity data and their lifestyle and clinical risk factors so that they are not only treating the sore throat , but they ' re also prescribing wellness .
“ Our Vitality primary care digital services also include physiotherapy and CBT services . We introduced the use of smartphone cameras to support diagnosis of skin lesions , for example . Our customers are sent a high-resolution lens that attaches to their smartphone and with which they take a photograph of their skin lesion , upload it , and our partner , Skin Analytics , will use Artificial Intelligence processes to assess it .”
Klintworth , who is passionate about progress , believes the company was well positioned to embrace digital healthcare at the start of the pandemic because it had all the foundations in place . “ Recently , we launched the next iteration of the digital care journey for our members – an online Care Hub where our members can start a claim , get authorisation and choose a consultant in one seamless digital process ,” he says .
80 August 2022