On a daily basis, we write about topics that support doctors and other medical professionals in caring for patients. In the contents, we focus on building trusting relationships, quality of care or collaboration in the therapeutic team. In this article, we want to make an exception. Because if you don't already know Doctor.One It is worth knowing what it really is - and why thousands of doctors already use it.

Initial challenge: doctors were skeptical of the new way to communicate with patients

Our first way to get to know in depth the needs and challenges of doctors was to participate in most medical conferences in Poland. We interviewed more than 10,000 doctors and realized that the majority are wary of digital patient communication tools - and rightly so. It is an expression of concern for your time, attention and professional boundaries. Traditional communication channels, such as SMS, e-mail or WhatsApp (which are used by about 70% of doctors in Poland), are not adapted to the needs of medical care. They lack structure, control and security. We understand these concerns — a poorly chosen tool can make the job more difficult, rather than easier.

Today: 3500 doctors use Doctor.One secure medical messenger

As a user-oriented company, we have made it our goal to make our app a convenience, not another burden. We wanted to finally give physicians a sense of agency and control over how they care for a patient, without the constraints of the system. Thanks to our mission, we have earned the trust of 3,500 doctors of more than 30 specialties - who today use the Doctor.Oneto communicate with patients in an orderly and safe manner. They influence what patients can contact, what matters they can write about and when they themselves write back to messages, and all communication takes place in a single application, in accordance with the rules of data protection and the guidelines of the Medical Ethics Commission (Articles 8, 9, 10, 11, 40 for the provision of telemedicine services of the Medical Ethics Commission of the Supreme Medical Council) [1]. The result is a Net Promoter Score, or NPS (loyalty index) of 93/100 among doctors and an application rating of 9.3/10 [2].

Doctor.One sorted out my communication with patients. I myself once thought about creating such an application.

- Grzegorz Napiórkowski, a specialist in gynecology, has been using Doctor.One for 2 years

What makes doctors trust Doctor.One?

Most telemedicine platforms are created for the convenience of the patient or administration. Doctors are just supposed to “fit in” with them. At Doctor.One we have reversed this pattern - we assume that if the doctor works calmly and in a well-designed environment, the patient really benefits.

From the beginning, we have been developing Doctor.One based on everyday clinical realities - limited time, decision pressure, loneliness between appointments. Instead of adding more responsibilities, we focus on solving the most important problems:

• chaotic communication on multiple channels,
• lack of professional boundaries in contact with patients,
• distributed documentation and additional paperwork,
• loneliness in the conduct of difficult cases.

Below we show how together with doctors we design a solution that has worked in practice for thousands of you.

Every feature in Doctor.One is created on the basis of research with doctors

We always start our application development work with deep qualitative and quantitative research with doctors. Within their framework:

• we conduct in-depth interviews with doctors of various specialties to understand their daily challenges and needs,
• we analyze the behavior of doctors and patients in digital communication,
• we test the experience of the doctor in real clinical contexts so that the product is an integral part of the processes.

As a result, every functionality — from the chat structure to the virtual celebration feature — is designed in close collaboration with our key stakeholder to support the work, not disrupt it.

Constant feedback loops — doctors are contributors, not just users

Doctor.One was not created “for doctors” — it is created together with doctors. This implies a constant dialogue with users during the development of the application. A great example of such collaboration is the complete redesign of the main view of the application in 2022. Originally, doctors in the course of their virtual celebration were supposed to move exclusively through the list of patients in a fixed order. In practice, it turned out that doctors need quick and convenient access to chat rooms, rather than navigating a rigid pattern. So we changed the model to “chat-first” - now the doctor immediately sees conversations with patients, exactly as he needs to.

According to the rhythm of work — asynchronous communication that respects time and priorities

One of the key differentiators of Doctor.One is asynchronous communication. Unlike classic telemedicine, which requires a “live” presence, Doctor.One allows the doctor to respond in their own time intervals. Thanks to this:

• the doctor does not feel the pressure of an immediate response,
• the patient knows exactly when to expect a reaction,
• communication runs smoothly and with respect for borders.

Equally important is security — an element that is missing from SMS, emails or WhatsApp. The application is fully compliant with GDPR, designed from the ground up with medical communication in mind.

Instead of chaos - an orderly and safe space of contact with the patient

Through ethnographic research and conversations with doctors, it turned out that the use of private channels to communicate with patients (SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger or e-mail) generates chaos and additional responsibilities. In one place, the patient will write what his problem is. In the second, he will send medical records. And in the third, the doctor must properly document and report this event. As a result, things get lost and it takes a lot of time for the doctor to solve them. What if the doctor, writing back to the patient in a simple chat as he does on WhatsApp, could immediately report the medical incident and settle with the patient? That's how it works Doctor.One, where the doctor has:

• full history of communication with the patient;
• access to all files, prescriptions and diagnoses in one place;
• ready-made templates for answers to common questions - from preparation for tests to symptomatic instructions;
• Privacy Protection — Your phone number remains confidential.

Where more support is needed — there are care coordinators

In studies conducted with physicians managing patients with obesity, we identified a key problem: excessive burden due to the complexity of care and lack of support between visits. Doctors pointed to:

• difficulties of patients in complying with recommendations,
• lack of regular contact between visits,
• problems with monitoring the progress of treatment.

In response, Doctor.One created the role of Care Coordinator — a professional supporting the physician in caring for patients requiring special attention. The role of the coordinator is to:

• patient education,
• monitoring symptoms, progress and experiences (PROM and PREM),
• answering non-medical questions and motivation between visits.

The physician remains responsible for clinical decisions, and the coordinator assists the patient in their implementation and maintenance.

For proof - a brief case study

Doctor.One was implemented in five hospitals as part of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Patient Support Program. The aim was to provide doctors with continuous and orderly contact with patients who had previously been admitted exclusively inpatient every 3 months.

What's changed?

• 81% of doctors noted an improvement in the quality of care and greater control over the course of treatment,
• communication with patients took them a maximum of 30 minutes a week,
• The NPS rate among doctors was 93,
• it was easier to adapt the therapy to what was happening with the patient in real time,
• patients adhered better to recommendations and reported improvements in well-being more often.

Do you want to try it?

Start with small steps:

1. Choose one patient with whom you have constant contact outside of appointments,
2. Invite him to contact you through Doctor.One (it takes less than 2 minutes).
3. Work as before - only safer, calmer and without chaos.

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