“Digital health and the digitization of healthcare is a complex, multilayered space. It requires the successful collaboration of professions and experiences from different domains,” says Theodor Jikander, CEO & Founder of Healo. Healo is a cloud and mobile platform that combines telemedicine, teletherapy, and telemonitoring. It offers one point of contact for all clinical and therapeutic needs for patients. Jikander’s multidisciplinary work history and startup experience in health and lifestyle has been the foundation of the Healo team’s success. ”We are not afraid to seek solutions and collaborations in places that are not automatically associated with our current digital offering and technology,” he adds. His teams driven approach has led to a more than 90% approval rate from a highly demanding, complex, chronic pain, and ME/CFS patient demographic.

The Full Potential of Digital Care

Digital health and telemedicine is a real challenge. There is a massive need for education and knowledge transfer in order that the low understanding of the full potential of digital care among Healthcare Providers can be overcome. “They still often, wrongly, believe that quality of care and efficiency must entail either higher costs or care complexity. This is not true. Healo’s telemedicine services continuously prove that increased quality and efficiency doesn’t mean increased costs for their client clinics. The systems fatigue present in many clinics is an unwanted adverse effect of over 20 years of suboptimal software. Healo empowers healthcare providers with the accessible and usable tools they need to deliver quality digital care.

Human-Centered Care

AI-supported analysis and care automation are fundamental to optimizing health outcomes and engaging patients. One size fits no one and a high degree of individualization is key to any digital and Digi-physical care production. Making use of machine learning to alleviate the burden of inpatient management and continuous monitoring is a huge plus. “Our telemonitoring component includes an advanced engine for automated alerts and warnings. It builds a safety net for both providers and patients,” says Jikander. The Healo team’s different experiences and competencies coalesced into a care platform that is focused on what actually needs to be done. Healo factors the patient perspective into everything they do, and honors that every specialist is a human, not a technologist.

Life-Changing Support

In the digital health domain, successes include strong patient experiences and health outcomes. In 2019, a patient with fibromyalgia had very poor experiences with several specialists. Healo’s short initial screening, therapist telemonitoring and mobile app-based support were “life-changing!” for her. The patient could now manage her chronic pain on her own. The patient stated that healthcare had failed her whereas Healo has not. “Every testimonial we hear of a highly successful patient experience, involving strong adherence and improved self-efficacy as in the 2019 chronic pain group, has high impact on me and my team,” states Jikander.

Capital and Patience

It’s important to never give up. “Successfully digitizing care and complex care procedures is a long play. You will need capital and patience,” he advises upcoming startups. It will often seem like the patients and clinics already have access to all the technology they need because they don’t know what they’re missing. “Humbly illustrate the limits to their current understanding and prove your point methodically,” he adds. An excellent, high-performing, well-recruited team alone will not guarantee success. Finding your place in the extensive, global healthcare ecosystem involves careful choice of clients and partnerships. Healo continues to revamp the digital care field and hopes to expand to frontline clinics located around the world.