Does anyone have an alternative to using WhatsApp for their hospital team?
Hi JR - good question. The challenge for any group messaging solution in health is indeed to be as good as (or better) than WhatsApp, so that people and health organisations embrace them. This has not been an easy nut to crack!
In NZ I know of two that have had some success: Microsoft Teams and Celo. There are a heap of others āout thereā internationally, but you are unlikely to see them here.
Microsoft Teams is liked by Health IT departments as it integrates into the rest of the Microsoft stuff that permeates our health organisations - and does video conferences pretty damn well. However, it is complex and not universally loved by staff.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software
Celo is a NZ homegrown messenger specifically designed for health, and has had some traction at CDHB and ADHB. Personally I like it, but I must confess to quite a bias against large software companies!
I have been trialing CELO - itās reasonable for what it does. May be funded depending on your DHB - Steve Vlok is the guy to get if you can (itās his baby)
Celo is designed to be a secure inter-health provider messaging service and has good imaging capability too. Also has a desktop app which is handy where you need to look at images in larger size than a phone will allow.
If all you want to do is transfer images of patients though, consider Medimage (www.medimage.co.nz) which does the image transfer really efficiently.
The strengths of WhatsApp and Signal is that they are fully stand-alone, and are virtually impossible to hack.
Their key weaknesses are being impossible to integrate with a health IT system (which limits their utility markedly), and by their nature are unable to share a message history - by this I mean that new members of a group cannot see or search old messages. Also, backups are user-dependent and flakey as a result.
Here is some up to date guidance from the UK for utilising messaging in health:
@CiLN-informatics @health-informatician-ahst
Here at Canterbury DHB we have been an early adopter of Celo. Works well as standalone messaging app. Particularly useful for messaging amongst a team or for sending wound photos to specialists for opinions. We are still working on integration piece with photo uploading to EMR, active directory integration and on-call/role-based functionality.
Does WhatsApp comply with the new Privacy Act? I doubt it would comply with the new āguidanceā from the Ministry on digital security. Here at MidCentral, we have looked at hard at Alcidionās Smartpage and Medtasker. We were impressed with both and they have similar capabilities.
Thanks everyone, I have been trying Celo and it works very well - getting my teams on board was easy and they have a lightweight free version which makes things easy to get started if your work doesnāt have the license. integration would be nice to push photos to the patient file
Iām a gp in CDHB region. Celo initially required a DHB email address to access (GPs donāt have one). For clinical photos, you take the photo in the app and previously there was no way to get it into the patient record. I think this has been solved for the DHB patient record and they are working on solving it for general practice patient record. They have also been working to create groups and notifications.
Hi KiwiJ9, Are you a user now? I have figured out how to create groups (Very easy), and the notifications work really well. There is also a āDo not disturbā feature for when you are out of office or on leave. You should check out their help centre if you are stuck - most of my questions seem to be answered there.
I am very interested in knowing more about the clinical record part - do have more info for this??
So Iām wanting to create virtual peer groups to share dermatology cases to help up skilled gps grow and maintain and share dermatology expertise. Iāve looked at a number of software options in the last 2 years. Iām now working on this site with @emily.gill and @NathanK to have health forum Nz derm small groups for case sharing. Photos are so easy here but the navigating is not quite as easy for me.
Celo was getting patient / clinical photos into health connect south (cdhb hosp software). I needed them to go to gp patient āinboxā in medtech 32/ medtech evo, indici etc. That was to be sometime this year. I havenāt asked or heard from them. Must follow up!
Kia ora @kiwiJ9, and this is awesome youāre figuring it out. It does get easier and make more sense, the more time you spend on here. Until we have lots of people on here, using it regularly, it may be hard to feel itās āeasyā, as thereās not alot to navigate around and explore. Thanks for keeping at it!
Yes, these othe products are about clinical care delivery, where itās specific patient photos that do need to be recorded in a patient file and specific details are being sent between providers, to help deliver care. Thus, the software must comply with health information privacy regulations. So, a solution would be likely limited to use within your referral network, and in relation to where referral contracts are located. And, yes, it should seamlessly be able to go from the device thatās taken the photo, into the medical record . . and ideally store no image/data on the device, that could inadverntly then be available on non-secure platforms (e.g., email, social media, here!, etc.)
This forum is NOT for that purpose, so no identifiable patient information should be posted here. This forum is about CME/collaboration/peer support professionally, rather than about specific patient care. Thus, it is across provider-contract-networks and is independent of contractual referral services.
Totally agree! Discourse is secure, but does not have clinical grade identity protection. And it may be made open to view on the internet at some stage.
In contrast, Celo does seem to be suitable for the situation of patient photos for clinical care. It is a lot more appropriate than WhatsApp, MMSāing, and indeed emailing.
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