It is now more than 10 years since Dr. Franck Baudino created Health for Development (H4D) to facilitate access to care for everyone and everywhere. H4D offers a global telemedicine solution with a state-of-the-art connected cabin. The software used to operate this medical device was developed from scratch by an ALTEN Kepler team in close cooperation with H4D technical department. Today, no less than forty of these cabins, the Consult Station®, are installed and marketed.
H4D, a global telehealth management
The H4D story begins in the field. Franck Baudino , general practitioner and then emergency doctor, has faced the daily realities of patients and medical staff, both in France and abroad. In 2006, he filed the patent for the Consult Station®, he decided in 2008 to found Health For Development and began developing his cabin.
But H4D is not just a telemedicine cabin. The company expertise includes:
- Management of the entire technological and digital ecosystem for Consult Station® and its software.
- Support to various structures that require specific solutions for access to healthcare.
- Complete integrated medical services: doctor training, appointment scheduling….
The Consult Station® concept
A unique concept in the world, the Consult Station® provides better access to healthcare. This medicalized and connected cabin allows a patient to be connected to a doctor at any time. This Class IIa medical device reproduces the conditions of a real appointment and has two modes: the teleconsultation mode and the self-checkup mode.
The cabin being equipped with a Consult Access medical software package, the teleconsultation mode allows the taking of physiological constants, or even medical examinations if necessary. All this is guided remotely by a general or specialized doctor, who has been trained by H4D.
The other mode, the self-checkup
When ALTEN Kepler bridges the gap between dream and reality
Consult Station®, which was only a doctor’s bold dream, became a reality with the help of the software developed by the ALTEN Kepler team.
F. Baudino wanted a telemedicine cabin, combining professional measuring instruments, screens and a communication system. Also, the ALTEN team had to meet the doctor’s requirements: retrieve the measurements from medical devices (such as a stethoscope or blood pressure monitor) and store them in an electronic patient record.
The engineers assigned to this project initially proposed a prototype of the communication pilot and user interface that connected a blood pressure monitor and scale to the computer. This first step has been the subject of extensive research into the usefulness and convenience of the cab, ran in close relationship with H4D. Then they developed a “doctor application” that allows the patient inside the cabin to have a real-time medical consultation via a video connection. Currently, the Consult Station® facilitates blood pressure and temperature measurements, performs audio and visual tests, monitors blood glucose and cholesterol levels and performs a retinal scan.
Since then, the consultation station has been industrialized, being certified as a medical device with laboratory tests.
Thanks to the specialized engineers who were able to carry out various tasks during the cabin design, ALTEN provided the expertise and know-how required for this project to run smoothly. Today, no less than 40 connected cabins are implemented in international health solutions and marketed. Beyond simple software development, the expertise of our employees has improved H4D’s business objectives and sales opportunities.
