Telemedicine video communication framework for eye test service in Israel

About company

Optica Halperin is the largest and most professional optics network in Israel, operating since 1988. Currently, the network has around 150 branches and employs about 700 people, including optometrists, opticians, store managers, sellers and service personnel. Optica Halperin aims to enable all segments of the Israeli population to receive comprehensive screening, professional medical consultation and buy glasses and contact lenses at affordable prices.

Problem

Healthcare and the method of providing eye examination and treatment need a systematic change worldwide. In Israel, medicine is of high quality and continues its rapid development in connection with the rise of digital technologies.

To improve effectiveness of medical therapy and increase the level of patient care Optica Halperin management made a decision to create special equipped rooms in their country-distributed branches to provide the Israel population with professional eye test service. Hiring licensed optometrists turned out to be a difficult and time-consuming process, so keeping up with modern medical trends, such as telehealth, using AI tools, remote treatment and surgery, the company switched to developing a telemedicine video communication framework.

Solution

After long and exhaustive research, the Optica Halperin management applied to Imagecom for recommendations and eventually decided to choose TrueConf, a leading international provider of video conferencing software. A joint effort between two teams allowed to implement TrueConf collaboration solution into the Optica Halperin queue management platform to connect doctors and optics customers via video conferencing. A new approach to the electronic eye test system was made possible by TrueConf Server, a 4K video conferencing software. TrueConf API, a set of ready-made application programming interfaces for app interaction, allowed to integrate video conferencing into the smart queue management platform that is used by Optica Halperin customers and employees.

Any customer can book an appointment via phone or on the Optica Halperin official website. After the registration to a particular optics branch, it is automatically entered into the queue management system and a patient receives an appointment number and branch number. The medical examination is conducted in a small room equipped with a camera and display for wide area coverage. Using only one button, an available remote eye doctor or operator initiates a video call and starts a session for an eye test. The ophthalmic technicians capture the patient’s eye images and simultaneously display them on another screen. To maintain efficiency, the operator can invite any Optica Halperin employee to TrueConf video conference for more effective and customer-oriented consultation. When the call is finished, the doctor closes the application and the queue management system replaces the button in the log to “Disconnected”.

Using a new smart platform, all available operators have an opportunity to see the nearest appointments as they are automatically raised to the top. Ophthalmologists can also record video calls and conferences, thus making patient handover much easier. Besides, information about each session is stored on the company’s own server so that managers can see start and end time of the consultation, and how many appointments each doctor had.

Results

TrueConf’s solutions allowed Optica Halperin to successfully equip 10 branches for smart ophthalmological examination throughout the country. The quality and performance of remote eye tests has drastically improved by TrueConf Server that successfully unites patients and doctors located far from each other. TrueConf video conferencing platform also improved team communication. TrueConf mobile and desktop client applications are installed on PCs, laptops and mobile phones of Optica Halperin employees so that they can experience work communication of high quality with a wide range of collaboration tools without limits. Patients and customers appreciate a new level of professional real-time medical service, convenience of having remote digital evaluations and receiving preliminary diagnoses by an ophthalmologist that reduces the risk of medical errors.