The Aussie doctors changing the world

TECHNOLOGY, apps and devices make human contact a rare thing today. But the doctors at GenWise are ensuring their digital platform remains relationship-focused.

stock

TECHNOLOGY, apps and devices make human contact a rare thing today. But the doctors at GenWise are ensuring their digital platform remains relationship-focused.

High-calibre care comes down to the doctor-patient relationship and the level of communication that the relationship allows. Dr. Sebastian Rees, director and co-founder of GenWise Health, believes that bricks and mortar can get in the way of relationship building, communication and ultimately, quality care.

Rees and his business partner, Dr. Troye Wallett, co-founded GenWise in 2013. In 2017, their efforts earned them the title of Telstra Business Awards Business of the Year. The national recognition garnered through the awards came at a crucial time, launching GenWise into the public and industry-specific eye and, most importantly, renewing the team’s confidence in their work.

“I think the awards gave me confidence that our way of doing things was ‘OK’. At the end of the day, both Troye and I believe so strongly in what we do. The awards have really propelled us forward and allowed us the opportunity to think on a bigger scale,” Rees explains.

Future focused

Since then, the duo and their dedicated team have made promising headway in the field with their unique, virtualised medical clinic model. With a specific focus on aged care, the platform is designed to foster long-term patient-doctor relationships with a digital framework that supports efficiency, productivity and flexibility.

Rees explains, “We have digitalised the traditional bricks and mortar model of General Practice, allowing health care professionals to work on-the-go, anytime, anywhere. We are unique in the sense that we are not restricted like many medical clinics to a geographical location.”

GenWise provides the structure, support and resources of a clinic without the overhead of a traditional surgery. The savings go straight to the doctors which allow them the extra time it takes to travel to their patients at registered aged care facilities (RACFs) and soon, the patients’ homes. According to Rees, this flexibility promotes continuity of care and cost-effectiveness; both of which are crucially important in aged care.

Building relationships

Rees explains that importantly, GenWise facilitates those improvements while cultivating community. As opposed to a busy clinic that pairs patients with a different doctor on every visit, GenWise allows patients to consistently consult with the same doctor.

“We see a shift of the paradigm of primary care from ‘building clinics’ to ‘building relationships’. After all, it is ultimately the relationship between the healthcare provider and the patient that we believe has the biggest effect on health outcomes. Our goal is to promote this, empower healthcare professionals and patients to communicate on a whole new level and for health care to be more personalised, comprehensive and preventative,” says Rees.

In the year since taking out the Telstra title, there’s been no break in momentum. Rees, Wallett and the team used the many media opportunities immediately following the awards to draw attention to the shortage of doctors working in aged care. Alongside awareness-raising, GenWise leveraged their public profile to get the attention of the key industry stakeholders that would be able to help them scale their model and make it available to more elderly Australians than ever before.

Changing the game

“As we start the year,” Rees explains, “GenWise is currently working on scaling our services right across Australia. We have been fortunate to have a national presence from an early stage and now we are looking to expand upon that to become a household name when it comes to care for older Australians.”

And that expansion isn’t limited to RACFs. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016 Census shows that about 99 per cent of Australians aged 75-84 and three-quarters of Australians aged 85+ live in their own homes or private dwellings on the property of family members. Back in 2011, only one quarter of Australians aged over 85 lived in private dwellings.

“Increasingly, we are going to see a larger number of older Australians staying at home for longer and so it makes sense for us to do what we can to improve their care,” says Rees.

It’s a joint effort between GenWise technology and a dedicated national team of doctors, each leveraging the other to raise the standard of care for older Australians. There’s no doubt that the technology is game-changing but Rees insists that the real achievement of the GenWise tech is the community that it has enabled.

“The clinicians who are part of GenWise are special – they believe in something greater than themselves and that they have a part to play in changing the way health care is delivered to older Australians. Everything that GenWise has become, we owe to the GPs, nurses, specialists and allied health professionals who work with us.”

With traditional community values at its core and an industry-disrupting dynamic, GenWise hopes for a future filled with facilitating positive change across the Australian healthcare system.

Originally published as The Aussie doctors changing the world