PokitDok Launches Enterprise Scheduler For Group Practices, Telehealth & Hospital Networks

Silicon Valley and Silicon Harbor startup PokitDok, a cloud-based solutions provider that connects consumers directly with practitioners, has once again introduced a revolutionary product to the healthcare market — the PokitDok Enterprise Scheduler. Announced at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, this patent-pending calendaring system will allow consumers the ability to book doctor visits for themselves or a dependent such as a child, spouse or aging parent. It works by enabling group practices, telehealth providers and hospital networks to centralize scheduling and build programs that make open appointment times available on intranets, websites and mobile apps.

The launch of the PokitDok Enterprise Scheduler will help move the $2.9B health industry away from switchboard operators, expensive call centers and paper-based systems. It will also drive down costs and bring unprecedented efficiency, along with improving the consumer experience.

Over the past ten years, the industry has made substantial gains by using Electronic Health Records (EHR). However, most group practices lack an electronic calendaring program that captures availability of every physician in the network. The PokitDok Enterprise Scheduler performs schedule aggregation to third party scheduling applications, including commercial off-the-shelf practice management software and supports practices with their own home-grown solution.

“This is an extraordinary technical achievement that honors the healthcare sector’s unique infrastructure along with its HIPAA and privacy requirements,” said Eric Hixon, an inventor of WebCal, the first Web enabled Calendar, acquired by Yahoo! in 1998. “When we created WebCal, the challenge was to get people to move from paper to online. Now that we’re there, PokitDok introduces a whole new multi-faceted and dynamic capability that is at the heart of any healthcare operation: booking appointments.”

Conventional software is not designed to support the telehealth sector, which is expected to grow to a $1.9B industry by 2018. Now, PokitDok can help virtual providers save unnecessary costs on expensive staff to coordinate appointment requests. The PokitDok Enterprise Scheduler requires no software installation, re-training of front desk staff or significant IT overhead to support it.

Consumers will find the experience very user-friendly as they can easily integrate their medical appointments into the rest of their lives. Location, timing and physician preferences can be set and rescheduling can be done online using a desktop or mobile device. The solution would enable email and text reminders to be pushed to iPhone and Android phones, completing the booking cycle.

“We’re ushering in a new level of interoperability previously unheard of amongst EMR and practice management systems,” said Ted Tanner, co-founder & CTO, PokitDok. “It allows the developers of third party applications access to a vast scheduling and EMR footprint without having to do all of the typical heavy lifting and without requiring detailed individual knowledge of those systems.”

The API for the PokitDok Enterprise Scheduler uses JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) for requests and responses. All API traffic is encrypted over HTTPS and authentication is handled with OAuth2, the open standard for authentication and authorization. Using this method puts providers and patients in full control of which applications can create and book appointments on their behalf. The API is designed according to Representational State Transfer (REST) principles and unlike on-site hardware installations, it resides in the cloud and does not require physical space to support or maintain.

After providing some configuration detail for the provider’s targeted scheduling system(s), PokitDok’s professional services team can help developers configure the integration. Then, available appointment slots will be automatically synchronized with the PokitDok Enterprise Scheduler within prescribed periods and made available to consumers for self-service booking. PokitDok already supports the top scheduling systems and can add additional scheduling systems as needed. Payers, health systems and digital health companies interested in implementing PokitDok Enterprise Scheduler can send requests to platform@pokitdok.com or learn more at platform.pokitdok.com.