The "Evidence-based post-COVID-19 Assessment" was developed by the EPOCA working group of the Swiss Insurance Medicine (SIM). EPOCA is a needs-based tool for evaluative and accompanying screening of Long COVID symptoms with the overarching aim of coordinating treatment and rehabilitation pathways as well as reintegration measures. More information on EPOCA can be found in this earlier blog.
Altea Care aims to improve Long COVID care.
Altea Care offers an app for patients that allows them to complete the majority of the EPOCA questionnaire at home on their mobile device. Healthcare professionals use the web based Altea Care medPortal, which transmits patients' answers, enables flexible case management, and automatically generates a report once the questionnaire has been completed. Two additional medical tests must be carried out during the consultation at the clinic. The time required to finalize EPOCA on site can be reduced from 2 hours to 20 minutes thanks to Altea Care.
Altea Care allows patients to schedule the completion of the EPOCA questionnaire according to their energy resources. Both the patient and the doctor are spared long, stressful consultations. In addition, the evaluation of the digital assessment is significantly less time-consuming than a questionnaire on paper.
In order to find out whether and how resources can be saved and whether Altea Care is able to improve the diagnosis and therefore also the care of patients, the app will be tested in a pilot phase over the next few months.
During this pilot phase, the app will be available to selected doctors and their patients. The participants in this test phase will use the app and evaluate its practicability, user-friendliness and any efficiency gains compared to the paper version of the EPOCA assessment afterwards.
We at Altea are excited about the results and look forward to being able to improve the care of people affected by Long COVID in the future with the help of Altea Care!
