A Finnish medical startup, Laastari Lähiklinikka (freely translated as “Band-aid Corner Clinic”), presented their brilliant new service model at a seminar arranged by User Intelligence and SC5. Laastari has built a light version of a medical clinic for getting quick help on typical ailments: sinusitis, ophthalmitis, urethritis, and so on. They also give vaccinations. iPads play an important role in their service model.
Our health care system has been built around large units with big overheads. To treat a small ailment is costly, and the costs are going up all the time. The founders of Laastari started off by re-thinking the whole service model. Instead of a health care center they offer one room in a shopping mall. There’s a nurse, a couple of chairs, some small equipment, and an iPad.
You can pop in the clinic without reservation, and your visit lasts less than 15 minutes. The nurse uses iPad software. She or he writes down your name and social security number, and the iPad software offers a menu of typical illnesses. After the first selection the system shows a set of yes/no questions.
After completing the questions the nurse sends the diagnosis to a remotely located doctor. The doctor’s iPad gives an alert; the doctor reviews the diagnosis and selects a proper medication. If you have visited the clinic before, they already know your possible allergies and previous treatments. If there’s a need to get a picture of your infected ear, for example, the nurse can send it along with the diagnosis.
Ville Öhman of Laastari emphasized that they have considered patient safety carefully. If the diagnosis shows that this time your ailment needs a more thorough investigation, they’ll send you to a hospital with a printed description of your diagnosis. Having a professional diagnosis at hand speeds up the process at the hospital. They don’t charge you in that case.
You pay a lump sum for the visit, now € 45. If you want a vaccination, they charge € 25 plus the price of the vaccine. The clinic sends the prescription to the nearest apothecary where you can pick up your medication.
There is a pool of doctors taking part in the service. They have been enthusiastic about the new service model. It is convenient for the patient and for the doctor, and the pricing is reasonable. The patients’ feedback has been overwhelmingly positive as well.
