Healthcare Case Study: Reasearch & Development

Healthcare Case Study: Research & Development

Customer Challenge

 

Business Need

A focus on developing new technologies to deliver better medical solutions required moving those solutions out of R&D and providing easy access to doctors all over North America to help improve their patient care. A lack of efficiency in the current structure meant too much time was being lost sending and transferring 3D patient scans to 15 regional labs and then re-sending to other outside specialty labs when necessary. Time meant money and the more time it took to process orders completely, the more time was lost seeing patients and drawing revenue. Manual processes were less than efficient.

IT Issue

Managing the receipt of 3,500 scans per day and more than 5,000 file transfers per day was just the beginning. Security requirements and HIPAA compliance meant all of that information had its own set of challenges to meet. With a minimum file size of 2MB and a maximum file size of 300MB, flexibility, reliability and a robust file transfer system was needed. Each day, those files arrived from all over North America at different labs, creating needed re-sends, while also creating logistics issues and incomplete audit trails for patient records. Some locations that were sending these large files didn’t have a reliable system in place, causing transfer sessions to die and files to be delayed. All the daily scans and transfers had a 6-hour file transfer window – it was time for automation.

 

Cleo Solution

Community Management was the solution. VLTrader was installed at headquarters to manage the file transfers that were coming in each day. LexiCom was deployed to the highest volume medical offices – controlling the entire exchange. Other lower volume users were instructed to connect via VLPortal, a customized web portal, to send files from their offices securely and reliably into the system. The process was now completely united. Doctors send their 3D scans from their internal application to LexiCom (either installed or via VLPortal). The information was then sent to VLTrader securely, reliably and meeting all compliance standards necessary. Once scans were received, they were redistributed based on the file type. With rules established in the integration of all the systems, the scans were sent to the lab that could not only produce the product, but could produce it the
fastest - creating a single point of distribution to the most efficient lab for the job. Once the product was made, it was sent back to the doctor’s office and the audit trail was complete, significantly reducing shipping costs, human error, redistribution and delays.

 

Success Snapshot

Size: 2nd Largest Medical Laboratory Network in North America
Profile: Medical Laboratories Focused on Innovation, R&D, Clinical & Technical Education
Software and Services: VLTrader, VLProxy & LexiCom
Vertical Industries: Healthcare Country/Region: North America
Business Need: Seamless Customer Experience & Increased Efficiency
IT Issue: Security, Compliance, Automation & File Management