Because the full benefits of a patient care file can only be reaped if it is accessible anytime and anywhere, MLS has developed MEDLINK, a medical monitoring platform operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in a highly secure environment. MEDLINK offers a broad spectrum of solutions for data collection: fixed-lines, mobile phones, PDAs, Smartphones and other technologies. In addition to answers to structured questionnaires, the platform supports vocal messages, pictures and video. Likewise, MEDLINK utilizes multiple solutions to dispatch notifications and patient care files: email, SMS, PDAs, Fax and regular mail.

MEDLINK has been designed to operate as a multilingual system, allowing to use seamlessly any language (French, English and German are already available). It is also an open system, receiving information from external databases (such as biological analyses results, directly fed into patient care files) and extracting information for analytical purposes or needed by other systems (for example, client invoicing through SAP).

MEDLINK allows health care providers to work with live and accurate Electronic Patient Information (EPI), make informed decisions and manage responses. It also sends out automated notifications when a patient and/or a member of his social or medical network reports a predefined condition, and sends reminders to patients to improve life styles and/or treatment adherence.

MEDLINK is tailored to address the specificities of each chronic medical condition, such as diabetes, medical nutrition, cancer, prenatal care, renal insufficiency, transplantation, HBP, cardiac insufficiency and HIV/AIDS.

Collected data include:

• Medical information:
• Clinical and biological constants, medical scripts, treatment adverse events
• QOL questionnaires
• Health and economics data (resource utilization)
• Occupational health
• Social & Sanitary information:
• Surveillance: epidemiology data (immunization and vaccines, infectious diseases, TB/DOT), travel health
• Home care: guidance on completion of treatment plans, drug and supplies ordering
• Monitoring of social services such as meal delivery, companionship, housekeeping management, medication reminders, incidental transportation and errands

.MLS added values:

• Multidisciplinary teams (Health, HE and organizational behavior),
• Rapid program implementation (4 months to go live),
• Excellent perception and acceptance by patients and healthcare providers,
• By pushing and pulling live information, the MEDLINK platform enables healthcare providers to be informed in real-time and when needed of developments and make informed decisions immediately,
• Programs are tailored to current and future client needs,
• High level of client satisfaction.

MLS offers vertical services to implement its programs:

• Provides consulting services to define organizational processes with the backing of its multidisciplinary team. The project cycle includes needs analysis, program specification, roll out, training, and customer support;
• Implements operational solutions adapted to our client needs based on our technological platform;
• Operates and supports 7/7 solutions allowing to coordinate care, to collect and analyze patient data, to notify non-compliance, and to dispatch patient care files, in a highly secure environment;
• Manages Coordination Programs and Patient Motivation Programs.

All programs developed by MLS present the following features:

• Real-time and on-the-field collection of medical, HE and OR, QOL and social information
• Enhance collaborative work processes among healthcare providers and possibly the patients
• Structure dialogues based on patient protocol defined by healthcare providers
• Centralized coordination of the programs
• Analyze and dispatch health-data collected and notifications, based on predefined workflow

MLS uses technical organizational modeling methodologies to determine program contents:

• Profiles (set of elementary programs to be combined)
• Roles corresponding to the various disciplines involved in the network (doctors, patients, nurses, pharmacists, community-based service providers, etc.)
• A set of questions for each profiles / roles
• Notifications dispatched to the ‘roles’ based on customized trigger rules
• Secured access rules determined for each role
• Automated communication and workflow information (patient care files, voice messages, pictures, etc.).

As a result, MLS programs provide a structured environment to multidisciplinary teams.
Their embedded workflow:

• guides the activities of each team
• determines information contents and dispatching
• manages and dispatches notifications to service providers
• allows to capture in a single patient care file all collected information and follow-up decisions made in response to notifications.

The pictogram below depicts roles and possible actions, and the functions of the MEDLINK platform: