The power of VaaS in healthcare - Ian Jackson, managing director and co-founder of Imerja

[Andrew Graley (andrewg)]

With budgets being squeezed across the board, the healthcare sector is constantly searching for innovations to improve the delivery and efficiency of its services.  Technology is able to provide any number of solutions to help relieve the many pressures on the health system, and as current technologies evolve it really can help distribute the highest quality care to every single person in the country.  Video collaboration technology is having a big impact in providing more effective ways for patients needing daily treatment or medication monitoring, where a nurse or doctor is required to be present at certain times.

So how is Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) helping the healthcare sector? VaaS is a centrally managed hosted video conferencing solution that can be delivered on demand to provide the highest quality experience, without the need to invest in your own infrastructure equipment. Our innovative, simple to use, secure and reliable VaaS uses Polycom’s high quality video and audio conferencing technology, through a flexible, hosted solution that allows clinicians to remotely assess and make an informed decision on treatment for patients.  It provides them with the same equal quality of service as if they were face to face with the patient.

The great thing about this solution is that it can be applied to many different scenarios that facilitate the provision of care and has improved patient experiences within a numerous healthcare organisations.  The technology is the same in every implementation, but the applications are almost endless, and we have already deployed the VaaS solution across multiple departments in different hospital sites with great success.

• Alder Hey Hospital pediatric neurology department have benefited hugely by removing the need for travel, allowing patients to access niche specialist care regardless of their – or the clinicians’ – geographical location. 

• Patients of Lancashire Teaching Hospital’s renal department were given more independence, enabling them to perform dialysis at home in a comfortable and familiar environment while being safe in the knowledge that expert help was at hand should they require it. 

• The VaaS solution is also able to provide a rapid response service and has already saved numerous lives or dramatically improved the quality of patients lives post-stroke, as part of the Lancashire and Cumbria Telestroke Network, which ensures that people in the region have 24/7 access to the experts which can deliver thrombolysis treatment following a stroke. 

• Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s Speech and Language Therapy department clinicians and therapists are now able to respond quickly should any elderly nursing home residents, some of whom may have previously suffered a stroke, get into difficulty when eating or drinking.

A patient at home receives advice while dialysising

Thus far we’ve received extremely positive feedback, highlighting the significant changes the VaaS has made to patients’ lives. Video-as-a-Service has no doubt helped to improve the patient experiences and outcomes and has also helped these hospitals realise significant cost savings.  Secondary benefits of the solution include:

• Enabling medical specialists around the country to collaborate remotely, heightening the quality of their communication and dissemination of best practice. 

• Freeing up hospital beds, which are always in high demand, providing a 100% utilization rate of across each hospital. 

• Prevents clinics from being overcrowded and allows the space to be used more effectively. 

• On the patient’s side, those living in the most remote locations can speak with a specialist at the other end of the country if need be. Saving them and their support network money, time and the stress of travelling.

Imerja is proud to have designed and implemented such an innovative solution which benefits both patients and the healthcare system as a whole. Like many other telehealth solutions available today, the VaaS service has serious potential to revolutionise the provision of care in the UK and beyond. So, whether it‘s deployed to support telehealth, telemedicine, teleconsultation or teletherapy applications – or simply to provide a more accessible platform for teaching or facilitating multi-disciplinary team meetings – VaaS has the potential to transform the way we choose to deliver and receive healthcare, and realize better experiences and outcomes for all parties.