HEALTH ESPRESSO

Health Express tablet with icons popping off screen

With the aging boomer generation leading to even higher demands on the healthcare system, this company is giving a jolt to the way health care services are being delivered to Canadians.

Canada’s health sector is blessed with so many knowledgeable and talented health care professionals, but the reality is, there are often communication gaps between care teams — gaps that could have detrimental effects on patient care. Some of the consequences include inefficient care and duplication of efforts, which, in a critical health crisis, can lead to overcrowding in hospitals — often referred to as “hallway medicine” — and higher costs to the health care system. COVID-19 brought many of these challenges to light as governments struggled to manage patient testing, registration and triage early in the pandemic, for both COVID-19 patients and those who needed the health care system for other health issues.

Health Espresso — created by Rick Menassa, founder of an award-winning innovative care agency for seniors and children with disabilities, iCARE Home Health — is working to bridge this communication gap at just the right time.

Health Espresso was inspired by the current home care of seniors aging in place, and by post-discharge patients experiencing preventable health events that send them back to the hospital. It’s a patient-centered, collaborative Virtual Health Record (VHR) that connects allied health professionals, primary physicians, hospitals, caregivers and patients on one secure, private, in-cloud platform, enabling health care providers to virtualize their practices and make informed decisions at the point of care for more efficient outcomes.

Available as a free mobile app for both iOS and Android, Health Espresso connects patients with physicians to communicate real-time data and empower patients to self-manage their health. Taking seniors into account, Health Espresso was created with an AI-powered voice communication tool, similar to Siri and Alexa, that generates appointment and medication reminders. The in-cloud Inter-Professional Virtual Health Record (VHR) provides health professionals access to vitals, medication lists, appointment notes, and patient histories, and will soon include lab, imaging, and hospital reports. The EHR is also outfitted with a medication adherence tracker, and also offers image capture and sharing for wound monitoring.

Currently, Health Espresso serves more than 67,000 patients and is anticipated to have an additional 30,000 patients by the end of 2021, with 12 hospitals and four Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) considering the remote patient monitoring solution for outlying patients and Indigenous communities. Talks have also begun with additional organizations, including long-term care homes and allied health and insurance companies who recognize the benefits of a platform that streamlines their patient care operations.

What’s next for Health Espresso? New tech will soon be added to the platform, like machine learning to improve vocabulary, multilingualism, and customized voice alerts from familiar sources like family members, as well as an upcoming feature that will monitor patient lifestyles through matrix data readings like weight, temperature, heart rate, blood pressure and more.