Halifax-based Virtual Hallway this week received the Access to Care Award at HealthPRO Canada's Healthcare Innovation Den, for its work closing the access-to-care gap for rural and remote Canadians.
The Innovation Den, held for the first time this year, named winners in three categories to recognize innovations that could create a measurable impact across Canada's healthcare system. HealthPRO Canada, which works in procurement in the healthcare industry, has established its National Healthcare Innovation Council to work with the winners on increasing adoption of their products across Canada.
“Events like this matter because of what they're built to do: help proven solutions move from pilot to procurement to adoption across the country,” said Virtual Hallway in a post on LinkedIn. “The National Healthcare Innovation Council brings together the health system leaders, procurement decision-makers, and clinicians who can turn a good outcome in one province into the standard of care in the next.
“This is what Virtual Hallway is here to do. Close the gap.”
Virtual Hallway was founded in 2019 after its three psychiatrist founders found they were struggling to schedule and document the phone consults they were performing. They saw that patients were waiting too long for specialist consultations and that these delays were leading to more chronic and disabling conditions.
The company now allows healthcare providers in various provinces to schedule consultations with specialists and streamline communication and record-keeping.
In its recent post, Virtual Hallway noted that 18 percent of Canadians live in rural areas, but only 8 percent of physicians do. The company says it connects primary care to specialist expertise, so the person caring for the patient gets fast access to advice. In peer-reviewed evaluations, 84 percent of consults in Nova Scotia and 81 percent in P.E.I. avoided an in-person referral, said the company.
