A new MedTech app will allow corporations to remotely manage employees’ general physical health and mental wellbeing, in a bid to boost workplace productivity and safeguard employees.
Workplace Medicine Australia (WMA) says the Medetective app enables businesses to monitor the health of hundreds of thousands of staff members returning to a shared work environment and working remotely in the post COVID economy.
Co-Founder and Medical Director, Dr Scott Allison says the app works by utilising a suite of integrated, TGA approved diagnostic tools to gather and aggregate continuous, real-time data to provide meaningful insights for organisations.
“The system works by providing anonymous, aggregated data, meaning that instead of singling out individuals for organisational problems such as culture issues, the whole workforce benefits as organisations work to improve the company’s average,” he says.
“This data can also be used for industry benchmarking so organisations can confidently know where they sit in terms of employee wellbeing among competitors,” Dr Allison says.
Dr Scott Allison says the app, set to launch early 2021, has made employee and patient privacy a priority, separating personal information from the broad data available to employers.
“That’s been front and centre, confidentiality and patient data,” he says.
“We’ve seen issues with online health platforms in the past, that have mishandled data so it’s definitely a concern and it has to be looked at with every opportunity, explored to make sure that it is secure, and that patients know that their data is secure.
“Rather than using something that’s currently on the market, we wanted to develop the app from scratch to ensure that there was privacy and confidentiality at every level, so that there’s a complete separation of data from the employer.”
As the benefits for both employee and employer are realised, Dr Allison believes the technology will be effective in saving organisations time and maximising their investment in both regulated and voluntary workplace health management.
“During this time of economic instability, which is only predicted to continue into the new year and beyond, it is vital that organisations not only prioritise the health and wellbeing of employees, but do this in a way that is efficient and accessible,” Dr Allison says.
“Time-consuming medical checks will be replaced with convenient remote consults and testing, allowing employees to remain working remotely — which is the new normal for many businesses.
“Employees gain real-time access to a dedicated medical team via telehealth, with biomedical devices used during the diagnostic process optimising time spent talking to clinicians to save time and promote productivity.”