Skip to main content

#Idea - Improving Member’s Office Visit Experience


What: Make sharing Personal and Insurance details with Doctor’s office hassle free, accurate and ‘paperless’.

Constraint: Work with existing infrastructure without requiring additional hardware at Provider’s office. 

How: Extend BSC App by building a new functionality that allows sharing of Member’s data with Doctor’s office. Here is how it will work.
  • On BSC app, members will have option to ‘share basic data with provider’.
  • Member chooses this option and a ‘camera’ on the phone is activated.
  • Member asks provider’s clerk to open a webpage (something short like BSCSHARE.COM)
  • BSCSHARE.COM will display a QR Code on Clerk’s screen. Member hands over the phone to the clerk to focus on read the QR code with member’s phone. When the phone reads the QR code, Member’s basic information as insurance details are shown on Clerk’s screen.
  • The clerk can now use this data to update their system (or in a not so ideal situation print the information, prints out the data on a paper for their records)
  • If legally allowed this action by the member can also be considered deemed acceptance of the HIPPA disclosures.
Why (Benefits):
  • Member does not have to complete a paper form and saves time (and paper if provider does not print this information). 
  • Provider has accurate Member information which results in proper filing of the claims.
Technical Details of how:
1. Web page that provider opens (something like BSCSHARE.COM) displays QR code. 

This code is actually contains a token to uniquely identify provider’s web client (the browser tab being used). To avoid confusion, let's just call it WebId. The web client is continuously requesting for permission for a certain WebId to the BSC server until it is authenticated by the phone app.
2. Phone client (BSC app in member’s smartphone) reads the QR Code
The phone client reads the QR code containing the WebId of your phone, and perhaps some authentication token. After that, the phone tries to authenticate (give permission) for that certain WebId. Or, in non-technical terms, the phone client tells the BSC server that this certain WebId is allowed to access a certain BSC account.
3. Web client requests access to BSC server
Now, the phone client has already authenticated this certain WebId. The web client who requests access to BSC server is now allowed to proceed. Now a pre-determined set of information for member is shared with the web browser. 
So that's how basically the authentication works. It was very neat because you don't have to input your account username Or type a password or be worried about what information the provider can see. Your phone you held basically authenticate your identity, pretty much like identity card. 
How did I come up with this idea and how do I know the technicalities (though complicated) are possible? I had this ‘problem’ of ‘writing down information during an office visit’ at the back of my mind for a little over 2 years and when I saw how WhatsApp web authentication works, I applied the same principles to my problem.

Watch this video to see how 'WhatsApp Web' feature works

In my idea, I just replaced ‘whatsapp web’ feature with ‘share your data with provider’ feature and ‘whats app conversations’ displayed in the web browser with ‘predetermined member information’ displayed in provider’s browser.

Challenges:
  • As with any change openness of Provider to use this feature will be a challenge and may require convincing on time saving and data accuracy benefit.   
  • May have technological challenges in implementing this feature.
  • May run into ‘patent infringement’ issues with WhatsApp / FB. I tried to see if they have patented this, but search returned lot of patents and I could not find if the one I am looking for exists. We need determine if there is a patent and if yes, we may have to work with the inventor to use this feature (I am hoping that we will get permission to use this  likely patented technology assuming that we do not compete with the patent holder’s business ) 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to go from ‘thought’ to ‘reality - Be comfortable with your ‘naivety’

Most of the times ideas that you have will fall outside of your comfort area and ‘day job skills’. You may be thinking about ‘transplanting’ what you have learned in one area and trying to apply the same in a different area. After the initial excitement, you will realize that you know very little about the other area in which you are venturing. Instead of fearing such situation, you should be ‘comfortably excited’. Here are 2 reasons why: You will have an opportunity to learn about this new area. Not knowing all details about this new area is an advantage, and not a handicap. This naivety allows you to not be bounded by assumptions that people with thorough knowledge and experience of this area have. This allows you to bring in a new perspective. Take ideas, data, experience and inspiration from your current experience to the new area. For more such lessons,  click here.
Post a Comment
Read more

How to innovate - Skate where the puck is going

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be” – Wayne Gretzky This cliché quote from Gretzky has been so overused that people have stopped paying attention to anything that follows it. So why do I bring up this quote in the context of Innovation? I bring it up to highlight that most people using this quote do not talk about difficulty involved in, and practice and patience needed to anticipate where puck is going. So I want to recognize that anticipating where proverbial puck is going is not easy. It requires physical and mental conditioning, developing specific skills and lot of practice. It also requires being comfortable with going to a place where the puck does not arrive. If we want to innovate, we need to get comfortable with not finding the puck where we anticipated it to go. And keep ‘pivoting’ till we become good at reaching as close to puck as we can. Same is the case with Innovation – it is not eas...
Post a Comment
Read more

Are you an Innovator?

'Why I am asking this?'. As someone who 'thinks' he is an innovator, I often find my self alone when I want to share my ideas, discuss solutions, get feedback and get a different perspective. This question is an attempt to seek out others who may also find themselves in similar situation. I would love to form a group of such people to collaborate for our mutual benefit. "When in doubt, ask Wikipedia": This principle has stood me well whenever I find myself short on information about something or when I cannot express something concisely and clearly. Wikipedia has never disappointed me and has often left me in utter dis-belief that it is 'crowd sourced' and not 'institutionally curated' information.     Here is what Wikipedia says about an Innovator:             An innovator in a general sense, is a person or an organization who is one of the first to introduce into reality  something bett...
Post a Comment
Read more