Mobile Healthcare: Mallu Case Study by Eksote in Finland

The Mallu vehicle is a new type of mobile healthcare service that is used in remote regions where these services don’t exist. The objective is to introduce more advanced services to locations that don’t have a dedicated healthcare center.

The targets for the Mallu system are:

• To answer the healthcare needs of people living far away from stationary service locations 
• To secure and develop the basic services of people in remote locations 
• To enhance wellbeing and health as well as to prevent illness 
• To support the health and wellbeing of the elderly and to support independent living 
• To produce new and reliable mobile services 

The customers include all community members, but the largest customer group is elderly people that have problems of travelling to the locations of stationary services. The first pilot tests in 2011 showed that as many as 65% of the customers were aged 65 or older.

The services

The Mallu vehicle provides primary nurse and pharmacy services. Special health related theme days are also organized using the vehicle. 

The vehicle has a fixed route and the target is to visit each dedicated site every fortnight. The time the vehicle is in one location varies from one hour upwards, depending on the need. The nurses provide services like ear rinsing, stitch removal, prescription renewals, vaccinations and other injections. Blood pressure monitoring, blood sugar level sampling and related advice are also included, while some quick sampling like INR is also performed in the van.

The broadband connection in the vehicle enables the usage of Eksote's regional health district patient register, so that all patient specific health issues can be monitored and reported online. Some dental services can be included depending on the equipment installed in the vehicle. 

The route of the vehicle in Southern Carelia, Finland 

The connectivity solution

One of the main requirements for the services is an always online data connection that is guaranteed to function in more remote locations. The Goodmill managed router system meets the challenge. The Mallu vehicle is equipped with a router that includes up to four different commercial mobile broadband connections. In current operations along the predefined routes, Eksote uses two SIM-cards from the two main operators in Finland.

The system overview of the Mallu healthcare vehicle 

The solution brings all the health district’s databases to the vehicle over secured VPN tunneling. The van then operates like any other connection inside the hospital or healthcare center with similar rights and capabilities. This also enables more modern services like live video streaming from the van, enabling doctors consultation on demand.

The costs

The total cost for the vehicle including salaries, vehicle rental and IT infrastructure are €115,000 per year. With a single customer’s cost between €52 - €104 per visit, the all costs of the service can be covered. This is obviously a very interesting value proposition for Eksote.

The summary

As the costs of health care are rising in general, a mobile service unit is a way to deliver services to more remote locations. A modern IT infrastructure is needed to support the service, which requires secure access to databases for medical records, electronic prescription databases and so on. The Goodmill managed router solution is a perfect building block and enabler for this. With always online broadband, imagination is only the limit to expand and upgrade the services in the future.

Secured Connectivity for Pharmacies: Case Receptum

There is an ever increasing demand for telecommunication in public health. Today, uninterrupted data connectivity in this sector as essential as electricity and running water. Many countries have implemented or are in a process of implementing centrally based electrical “e-prescription” systems. The challenge with these online services is the need to connect to the central location every time the service is used. If downtime occurs on this connection, transactions cannot be made.

 

Goodmill Systems Ltd. and Receptum Oy have jointly developed a solution to handle these commonly occurring data connectivity problems. Receptum offers a complete package of Pharmacy IT systems while Goodmill supplements the solution with always online managed broadband access. The solution guarantees in principle 100% availability for the necessary IT services. Best of all, the solution has been proven to be 60-70 percent cheaper than the competing solution in Finland and thus provides a payback period of only 6-7 months. 

 

 

Solution description

 

The solution used is based on remotely managed routers that each have a fixed line and a mobile backup connection. When the fixed connection is not available, the router connects automatically to the systems using the alternative mobile link. This switchover time is very fast; unnoticeable to the users. The operators and mobile network technology can be freely selected based on local availability.

 

An additional benefit is that the system provides seamless connectivity from both branch pharmacies and home offices. All connections are created automatically by the system and no local configuration is needed. The connectivity can thus be assured to all payment services, e-prescription databases and all other required applications.

 

 

 

Solution benefits

 

The solution is operator independent: the customer can select whichever operator offers the best prices. It is actually recommended that the customer selects different operators for fixed line and mobile connectivity for resilience reasons. It is very rare that two operators would fall down simultaneously.

 

Operator independency also provides cost benefits. One does not need to buy high cost secured MPLS or expensive VPN solutions from a single vendor. The required encryption is provided by the router system. The system provides not only cost savings, but improved service quality overall.

 

Data traffic may also be prioritized so that e-prescriptions and payment data will go through, even while higher bandwidth services are in use. This ensures that connections for crucial and critical applications cannot be blocked.

 

The home office availability solution has been very well received. Pharmacy owners want to have full access to systems from their homes outside of business hours or during late evening opening hours. It has been one of the most demanded and widely used features of the system we offer.

 

As the routers are remotely managed, the connectivity and the functionality of the routers and other back end systems can be continuously monitored. This ensures that the backup connection is fully operational even when not in use. All status reports and logs are securely stored and can be presented to the customer on demand. The customer can thus have a reliable report on the true availability of connections whenever they desire.

 

Customers feedback is positive. Several pharmacies have indicated that customers come directly to buy the products from a place they know can provide the goods due to a well-functioning system.

 

 

Expanding customer base

 

The presented backup solution is the market leader in Pharmacy systems in Finland. Receptum already has a customer base of approx. 400 pharmacies and more than half of them currently use the solution. Receptum strategy is to expand to other special retail sectors where uninterrupted connectivity is needed. The joint solution therefore has interesting growth opportunities.

 

 

Summary

 

High availability IT solutions are here to stay. The branch has been looking for a more flexible player that is operator independent and offers more flexibility for the customers. Receptum and Goodmill have found a remarkable solution that is quickly expanding beyond pharmacies to dentists, medical centers and other specialist retail sectors. 

 

If you want a better service at a lower cost, don’t hesitate to contact us!

 

 

Jukka Mäki-Moijala

CEO

Receptum

 

 

 

Receptum Oy (Ltd) is dedicated to the provision and development of user friendly data-management systems delivery with over 20 years of experience in this field of business. Receptum provides IT-solutions and IT-services for commerce, pharmacists, dentists and dental clinics, doctors and medical practices. The extensive range of Receptum solutions also includes comprehensive bank and data transfer packages.