SUCCESS STORY

How the Adult Neurology Clinic at UCK Gdańsk replaced the duty phone, SMS and email with one secure, HCP-controlled channel and brought 97% of invited patients with it.

Hospital
Neurology
Multiple Sclerosis
Poland
90%
of phone & email communication
moved to the Doctor.One app.
97%
of the 518 invited patients activated the app.
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About The Partner

The University Clinical Centre in Gdańsk

‍The University Clinical Center in Gdańsk (UCK) is one of Poland’s largest public clinical centres and a highly specialised academic hospital affiliated with the Medical University of Gdańsk. With 1,200 beds and nearly 5,000 employees, it provides advanced diagnostics, treatment and rehabilitation across almost every field of medicine.

Its Department of Adult Neurology is a leading regional centre for neurological care and one of Poland’s foremost centres for cerebrovascular disease treatment. It pioneered mechanical thrombectomy for ischaemic stroke in the Pomerania region and is recognised for diagnosing and treating both common and rare neurological conditions.

The Challenge

Between two visits a year, the rest of the care hadnowhere to go

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, progressive autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, in which the immune system attacks nerve tissue in many places at once1.

Around 2.8 million people live with MS worldwide, about46,000of them in Poland, aged 18 to 55.
Every year 2,400 more people in Poland hear the diagnosis
, and 70% of those living with the disease are women2.

Treatment is a long-term commitment: injections or infusions, on schedule, for years. Forgetting a dose is the first or second most common reason patients fall off therapy3, and adherence drops further when symptoms disappear, injections get difficult, side effects wear on, or depression and anxiety take hold4.


Nearly all of this plays out between appointments: an MS patient typically sees their neurologist about twice a year, and everything in between ran through whatever channel was at hand, and each one leaked5.

‍

Every between-visit need travelled by whatever channel was at hand and landed in one joint bucket, with no one knowing whose turn it was.

Click a need, a channel, the bucket, or a "?" to follow the flow.
No items found.
nurse
handled it already?
No items found.
2 physisians
or was it theirs?
Solution

One secure, clinic-controlled channel as the primary way to reach the team

The Adult Neurology Clinic at UCK Gdańsk replaced the duty phone, SMS and email with one secure app, set by the clinic as the primary channel for between-visit contact. Every message now arrives in a chat with a clear owner: the nurse takes care of most matters, and the physician steps in for clinical calls, on rules the clinic itself defined.

Today 575 patients use the app for everything that once scattered across three channels, from routine questions to symptoms that cannot wait.

Care team's view
Patient's view
One inbox

All patient conversations in one place

Each member of the care team has one inbox with all of their patient conversations. New messages, open threads are visible in a single list. The duty phone, the clinic mailbox and private SMS are no longer part of patient communication.

Closing the loop

The team sees whether the next steps worked

After proposing next steps, the HCP gets pop-up, in-time feedback on their effectiveness, so care between visits isn't just reachable, it's followed through.

RESPONSE TIME

Each HCP sets a response time, visible to patients in the chat

The declared response time is displayed at the top of the chat. Patients know when to expect an answer, and the HCP replies asynchronously, between visits and procedures. A message does not require an immediate reaction.

ROLES & ROUTING

The nurse handles most matters, clinical questions reach the physician

Organizational and educational matters are handled by the nurse. Clinical questions reach the physician. The division of roles follows the rules the clinic defined during the implementation.

the conversation

Patients write when something happens and the right HCP reacts in a timely wag

A new symptom, a relapse suspicion, a question about thetreatment: the patient writes asynchronously, without phonequeues or opening hours, and the appropriate member of the careteam responds.

The care team

Every patient sees their team, and every message has an owner

In the app, each patient is connected to their care team in twodedicated chats: one with the nurse, one with the physician. Noshared inbox, no joint bucket: from the first message, iťs clearwhose it is.

Impact

Organized work for the care team and uninterrupted care for patients

Six months after implementation, we went back and measured what had actually changed. The clinic that once juggled a duty phone, SMS and email now runs its between-visit care in a single app, and work is simply more organized: roles are clearly defined, and messages do not get lost between channels and staff.

The workload has found its right shape too: 3x less messages arrive to the physician, because they are taken care by the nurse. Each question lands with the person meant to answer it, and the whole team can see it has been handled. Here is what that looks like in numbers, on both sides of the channel.

90%
of the phone and email communication was replaced with the Doctor.One app in the Neurology clinic.
13 min
a day spent in the app by physicians to take care of a cohortof around 300 patients
55 min
a day spent in the app by the nurse to take care of a cohort of around 600 patients
Doctor.One has transformed the way we communicate with our patients. It enables seamless remote contact, improves the quality and continuity of care, and provides a single, consistent communication channel for our MS team. It has strengthened our collaboration with patients, made communication much more effective, and has had a positive impact on how our center is perceived.
Marcelina Skrzypek-Czerko
Nurse, uck gdańsk
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97%
of the 518 invited patients activated the app.
4,67
app ease of use
4,81
Doctor.One support satisfaction
What I like about the Doctor.One app is that even when my doctor had to cancel an appointment due to unforeseen circumstances, I wasn't left without care. They sent me a message asking whether I had my blood tests done. It made me feel that theg were genuinely interested in my health and that my care continued uninterrupted, even though we couldn't meet in person.
Anonymous patient
Doctor.one
l have multiple sclerosis (MS), but I had no idea that relapses could present with such different symptoms. I had another relapse, but I didn't recognize it. I contacted my doctor through Doctor.One, and they immediately identified the cause of my unusual symptoms and referred me for further tests.
Marta Ł.
A DOCTOR.ONE PATIENT SINCE 2023
l didn't have to keep checking my email or worry about missing a message. Communication is quick, with instant notifications and fast responses. Iťs a great idea and a fantastic app. I feel much more at ease knowing that my doctor is there for me whenever I need them.
Anonymous patient
Doctor.one
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From three leaking channels to oneapp that routes itself

Patients of the clinic saw their doctor and nurse every three months, and between those visits there was silence. Reaching the clinic meant scattered channels: over 500 people used the duty phone, SMS and email, often through intermediaries such as the front desk. There was no single, organized channel of contact and no scalable model of care between visits, so messages landed in a joint bucket, and some of them got lost. Today one app has replaced email, phone, SMS and private channels: roles and responsibilities are clear, communication is organized, and patients are safer for it.

Press before and after switch to watch the scattered channels collapseinto a single app that sends two thirds of messages to the nurse and one third to thephysician.
Before
After
No items found.
nurse
handled it already?
No items found.
2 physisians
or was it theirs?
Our Approach

We built it around the people who use it, and reached 80% adoption in a week

Our implementation approach is built around close collaboration with the people who will use the Doctor.One app. We began with workshops and user research, giving equal weight to the needs of the care team and their patients. Together, we defined success, identified risks, and shaped the rollout.

When the app launched, our team was onsite to train healthcare professionals and answer questions in person. Within one week, 80% of imported patients were actively using the app.

1
Evidence

Research paper

The project findings became a foundation for further research and publication.

2
Scale

Further development to other clinics

The validated approach created an opportunity to introduce the model in other clinical settings.

3
Product

Further product development for more convenient app usage

Insights from everyday use continued to inform improvements that make the app more convenient.

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