Well begins national roll-out: the future for Swiss healthcare

In November 2020 health insurers CSS and Visana, telemedicine and digital healthcare provider Medi24, and online pharmacy and technology partner Zur Rose Group made an announcement as joint founders and funders. This has now been realised: the healthcare app Well has taken Switzerland by storm. After a successful test phase of the beta version, the Well app is now set to be rolled out on a larger scale. In just a few short months, the number of users has already reached five figures and doctors connected on the app number more than 4,000.

New with 24/7 Doctor Chat
Acute pain in the night; an accident on your bike; your child coming down with symptoms you don’t recognise: If you have the Well app set up and the key information entered in, you are well prepared for these types of situations. Users can access personalised, quality-assured services around the clock that will guide them along the entire health pathway – from prevention to aftercare. For instance, users can communicate directly with a doctor via 24/7 chat, use a medically supported digital symptom checker for an initial assessment, arrange an appointment with a telemedicine specialist, or order medication. The platform meets the highest standards of data protection and data security. All individual health data is encrypted and stored securely on servers within Switzerland. The app users themselves decide who has access to which data.

Well partnerships make visiting the doctor easier
Well already works with various doctors’ networks in German-speaking Switzerland and with Réseau Delta, the largest managed care network of family doctors in French-speaking Switzerland. Anyone receiving treatment from within these networks will benefit from further streamlining: digital sign-in to their surgery for new patients, extended sign-in with information on medical history, appointment booking and appointment management, digital exchange of documents between patient and practice via the Well Medical Safe, and more. A further phase will see structured transmission of data to medical practices and other service providers developed.

Open and independent platform
Since March 2021, a team of around 40 members of staff has formed in Schlieren who, together with users, are driving the continued development of the Well app. “In just a few months, we have recruited a dynamic team and successfully launched a beta app. After an intensive testing phase, we are very pleased to be able to offer the Swiss population better access to healthcare services, in addition to more efficient and therefore more cost-effective processes within the healthcare system itself. And this is just the beginning: we have created a total package that has never been seen before and are continually expanding the range of services for our users,” says Alexander Bojer, CEO of Well Gesundheit AG. “We have developed a digital health navigator meeting the very highest standards. Well is open to everyone. We are connecting Switzerland to make health simple, digital, and empowered for everyone.”