New Brunswick’s Populus Goes Global
FREDERICTON–Imagine a healthcare system where information is consistent, communication between healthcare providers is seamless and potentially at-risk individuals are screened before they even find that weird lump on their skin.
This is the system Populus Global Solutions is seeking to implement locally and globally. The Fredericton-based company has developed a web-based health software solution that makes health records and communication completely electronic for the sake of efficiency and clarity.
The system is currently deployed in Belize, where all of the public health facilities use the Populus technology, as well St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Barbados and some areas of New Brunswick. The company now has its sights set on expansion throughout Canada and the US.
“We’re using our learnings from the past in Belize and Barbados and interacting with users to expand the company throughout Canada and the US,” says Nigel Orfei, Populus director of customer success. “We have proven success in those markets. We have proven reports of patients getting healthier, health regions saving money using our product.”
“(We have) an understanding that we speak the same language as users and that we’re not just a new company that’s starting, we have some past success … Awareness is still what we need to focus on, using past success to propel us forward.”
The Populus solution streamlines healthcare administration. “All the different individuals involved in healthcare log into our product and would exchange information electronically,” Orfei explains.
“Imagine going to the doctor. The doctor says ‘you need these lab tests,’ would hit send on the request, it would go to the lab electronically, you would go to the lab, check in, take a blood test. All the results would be captured in Populus and be sent back to the doctor. There’s no paper transactions and everyone has permissions to only see what’s appropriate based on their role.”
Orfei says Populus wasn’t always focused on healthcare solutions. The company started with process improvement, working on scenarios that needed re-engineering. Populus took on their first health project in 2007 and became completely focused on those types of projects in 2010.
“Capturing information electronically in a structured format with preset options or preset dropdowns or preset fields makes sure that things are consistent,” Orfei says. “Things can be consistent and measured side by side.”
Orfei says the system will make the healthcare process simpler when a patient has to switch between practitioners and their information has to change hands. He says Populus is constantly working with doctors, nurses, lab technicians, medical secretaries, and experts in the field of medicine to improve the system and cater it to the way different hospitals and clinics operate.