ROSe (Rural Outreach Support e-medicine) is an initiative started by a group of diverse intensivists from British Columbia, to help support rural and remote healthcare providers with challenging clinical situations. The project was designed completely by physicians, for physicians, and most of that was from the feedback of numerous rural physicians.
Initially a pilot project was started (called CODI), which showed significant improvements in doctor satisfaction, patient outcomes, recruitment & retention, and reduced healthcare costs. Therefore, it was decided to expand the mission and develop an app specifically made to meet the needs of frontline rural and remote providers. That new platform is called ROSe.
ROSe is not just another telemedicine service; it is truly a mission. The entire platform has full end-to-end encryption; it allows the instant exchange of any data between specialist and rural provider, and includes a consult note at the end which can be saved securely on the caller’s phone, or printed-out for the patient’s chart.
Specialists who share the same desire to help are recruited for the mission, and they are available anytime, day or night, including weekends and holidays, with simply the touch of a button on the app. There are no voicemails, operators or pagers; the connection is immediate and direct. It’s a friendly and non-judgemental interaction. The feedback has been superb.
The group is now incorporating teaching and bedside instruction for rural residents, nurse practitioners, or anyone who would want extra knowledge-sharing. Every feature on the app is tightly encrypted, so no worry about privacy or security issues!
The app is free to download either on the App Store or Google Play. There is no cost to you, so rural providers have nothing to lose by downloading it and giving it a try. You can connect from anywhere in Canada (except Quebec at this point).
