Hours of waiting to talk to the family doctor to get a prescription, perhaps repeatable for a known therapy. Or days spent looking for a specialist, with only the support of word of mouth from friends. And then, weeks but also months to be received. The flaws of the National Health Service, extremely precious and unique in the world for the universality of access to care, have a very specific name for citizens: they are called waiting lists, in the public but often also in the private sector, and administrative delays. And if the former essentially affect the users of the NHS, the latter impact in the first place on health professionals who devote massive amounts of their time to bureaucratic and “study” procedures. Inevitably taking them away from the clients.
Doctolib, the Italian-French Tech Company arrives in Italy
The pandemic that we are slowly leaving behind has definitely increased these difficulties, which in daily life heavily affect the right to treatment. But it has also – finally – highlighted the need for a decisive change of pace: so much so that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan invests in the Health chapter in advanced computerization, with the strengthening of telemedicine and the electronic health record that should contain all patient data.
A perspective to which private individuals are also applying to make a contribution. “In recent years, Doctolib has supported hundreds of thousands of French and German doctors’ offices and hospitals and has improved healthcare for over 60 million people. Now there will be the opportunity to do the same in Italy, alongside doctors and in close collaboration with the public sector ». Speaking is Stanislas Niox-Chateau, co-founder and CEO of Doctolib, the Italian-French Tech Company that arrives in Italy – 250 million investment and a new Tech Center to be built in Milan – with the aim of “helping doctors to improve their working life and patients to better manage their health ».
Helping patients and doctors to save time
As explained by Nicola Brandolese, new CEO of Doctolib Italia, 25 years of experience in the digital sector, formerly part of the founding team of Sky Italia and already driving the digital growth of the Luxottica Group. Founded in 2013 in France, Doctolib is a leader in Europe in digital healthcare: with its software suite it aims to improve access to assistance and therefore the health of patients and to help doctors save time, optimize their online presence and improve the management of clients. It allows the latter to find information on doctors and specialists, to make appointments online 24/7, to send requests and documents directly from their account. “In France and Germany our experience is vast and consolidated: we serve 60 million people and help over 300,000 healthcare professionals – explains Brandolese -. During the pandemic we gave decisive support in the vaccination campaign, managing 70 million appointments in the two countries and guaranteeing 7 million connections in a few minutes after President Macron announced that the Pass is mandatory in France ».
Today the company is making its debut with us after having thoroughly analyzed the “case of Italy”: “We studied for a long time to understand which was the most interesting reality in a perspective of potential improvement and Italy was among the countries further behind compared to ease of access to care and the way health professionals work “.