BeWell – The Patient Journey Made Manageable

We talked to Joris Wile of BeWell about improving patients’ quality of life, and he had the following to say:-

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Joris Wile: We are doing fine. Thank you. Although everybody is looking for more flexibility and options in their daily life, we are all aware that the measurements taken by the government are needed to cope with this virus. 

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded BeWell.  

Joris Wile: I started BeWell about 10 years ago to help patients who suffer from chronic pain via a digital tool that could improve the exchange of information as well as the cooperation between the physician and patient. 

The goal was to improve the quality of life of these patients by providing more information to the treating physician via telemonitoring functionalities. The reason I did that was based on my own health situation as a chronic pain patient.

How does BeWell innovate? 

Joris Wile: Over the years, BeWell has provided tools to monitor patients when they are outside the hospital during the moments that not much is known about the patient. When gathering input on a daily basis, the healthcare team can have improved insight into the health situation of a patient. The patient-physician platform, Well@Homeä, has several advantages that create important combined unique selling points: 

· Platform and patient data are installed Intra-Muros in the hospital

· Direct connectivity with the Electronic Medical Record (HL7/FIHR)

· The platform can be seen as a shell around an EMR to add functionalities monitoring patients outside the hospital

· Easy interfaces to add own care-paths 

· Options to connect with partner applications that have expertise in a vertical (pathology)

· Data analysis capabilities (PREM/PROM)

· Connectivity of many medical devices

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances? 

Joris Wile: As our Well@Home platform is used for telemonitoring, the link to follow-up patients with symptoms of Covid was easily made. 

Therefore, Covid has had a positive impact on our business. Currently, Well@Home is used in many regions to monitor Covid patients and learn from the obtained data. 

BeWell also has self test kiosks that have been offered on the market about 7 years ago. These kiosks help to identify patients with an elevated risk of having Covid.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources, and what are the lessons learned? 

Joris Wile: In the last 4 months, we had to scale up to cope with the demand from clients to be able to deliver in time.

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient? 

Joris Wile: Due to Covid, our clients seek solutions that can be operational on very short notice. The Well@Home platform was very well positioned for this situation, which improved our customer relations.   

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat? 

Joris Wile: Indirectly, we have had a benefit. The Belgian government has put reimbursement in place for telemonitoring Covid patients. As our Well@Home platform is used for that reason, we could increase the install-base.

Your final thoughts? 

Joris Wile: Let’s hope that the vaccines will give all of us the option to regain our freedom. 

Your website? 

www.bewellinnovations.com