Well: Modernizing Swiss healthcare with a reliable, secure digital health platform
About Well
Well’s customer-centric healthcare platform is modernizing Switzerland’s health system. A joint venture between some of the biggest names in Swiss healthcare, including CSS, Medi24, Visana, DocMorris, Galenica, and Swiss Medical Network, it offers digital access to healthcare for everyone in the country. Launched nationally in May 2022, it reached 150,000 users in one year.
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Contact usWell has built a reliable, scalable healthcare platform on Google Cloud, whose Cloud Region in Zurich helps the company comply with Swiss data protection laws.
Google Cloud results
- Securely stores and shares patient data using the FHIR standard with Cloud Healthcare API
- The Google Cloud Region in Zurich aids compliance with Switzerland’s healthcare data regulations
- Minimum viable product built and rolled out in under five months with Google Cloud architecture
- Stable, scalable platform built on Google Kubernetes Engine has acquired around 150,000 users in one year
Well secures patient data with Cloud Healthcare API
With its universal health insurance coverage, more doctors per capita than most other OECD countries, and high levels of patient satisfaction, Swiss healthcare is frequently ranked among the best in the world. But Switzerland has been slow to digitize its health system compared to other countries, meaning it’s yet to take advantage of the improved health outcomes, higher quality of treatment, and better patient experience that a modern, digitized healthcare system can provide.
Switzerland’s new digital health platform, Well, wants to empower Swiss patients to take control of their own health journey. Built on Google Cloud, the Well app connects users with doctors, pharmacists, and insurance companies, giving them access to medical services and virtual appointments, and allowing them to order prescriptions and medication at the touch of a button.
"The Well app is modernizing integrated healthcare," explains Mario Bernasconi, CEO, Well. "It’s a very user-centric approach that allows users to receive professional medical advice, attend virtual appointments, share medical data, and personalize services according to their insurance model. It’s a new approach to healthcare, in a country where health services typically exist in silos."
"The Well app is modernizing integrated healthcare. It’s a very user-centric approach that allows users to receive professional medical advice, attend virtual appointments, share medical data, and personalize services according to their insurance model. It’s a new approach to healthcare in a country where health services typically exist in silos."
—Mario Bernasconi, CEO, WellSecurely storing and sharing patient data with healthcare-specific services
Due to the sensitive nature of patients’ medical information, Switzerland has explicit laws around the handling of user healthcare data. When Well began its search for a cloud provider on which to build the new platform it discovered that Google Cloud had a Cloud Region in Zurich. This, combined with its range of security features, made Google Cloud the obvious choice to help Well secure user data and comply with Swiss data regulations.
Cloud Healthcare API was another decisive factor in Well’s choice of Google Cloud. With its industry-leading healthcare-specific services, Cloud Healthcare API enables Well to accelerate the development of its platform, while meeting industry-specific security, privacy, and compliance requirements around protecting user healthcare data.
Cloud Healthcare API allows Well to store and share healthcare data simply and securely using the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard. With Healthcare IT systems often using different, incompatible data models, it can be difficult for medical organizations to share data. The FHIR standard defines a common data structure to allow healthcare IT systems to share data easily, which reduces costs, increases efficiency, and ultimately improves the quality of care. As Well scales up, it intends to make greater use of the FHIR standard to increase the connectivity of the Swiss healthcare system, and improve the user experience.
"A key success factor of the digital transformation, in the Swiss healthcare system in particular, is to facilitate interoperability" explains Flavien Meyer, CTO, Well. "It is therefore crucial to adhere to standards like FHIR. Cloud Healthcare API is a tool which helps us store and share data in a convenient and secure way."
A solid foundation for growth with Google Kubernetes Engine
Built on Google Kubernetes Engine, Well launched nationally in May 2022 and has reached about 150,000 users in one year. Part of the platform’s success is due to the product team’s ability to use Service Mesh to test new features and services before rolling them out, reducing the time between ideation and going live. And as the business has grown, Google Kubernetes Engine’s auto-scaling feature has allowed Well’s architecture to automatically grow with it.
"With Google Cloud, I never feel like anything is unstable or limited or constrained in any way. I feel like we can onboard the whole world," enthuses Cedric Meury, Principal DevOps Engineer, Well. "The autoscaling and automatic operations that Google Kubernetes Engine provides allow us to distribute our workloads, which helps us to manage our costs. I fully trust that if we need more machines, or we need to restore something, or whatever arises, we won’t have any problems. It’s rock solid."
For Meury, that solidity underpins the reliable user experience that patients enjoy whenever they use the platform. "The user gets a very reliable experience because all our backend services are hosted on Google Cloud," says Meury. "So far, we haven’t had any problems. And the fact that we are also able to scale it up and down is nice for the users, as they don’t have any availability or performance issues."
"The autoscaling and automatic operations that Google Kubernetes Engine provides also allow us to distribute our workloads, which helps us to manage our costs. I fully trust that if we need more machines, or we need to restore something, or whatever arises, we won’t have any problems. It’s rock solid."
—Cedric Meury, Principal DevOps Engineer, WellThe freedom to modernize Swiss healthcare
Well is expected to reach more than 200,000 users by the end of the year. As the business grows, it is focusing on building new features, and is currently using BigQuery as part of a data analytics prototype that will enable its analysts to understand the popularity and usage levels of its features, giving it the insights it needs to refine its existing products and build a road map of future developments. One particular area of interest is to develop features around managing medication for chronic conditions, to continue to add value to the platform for its growing user base.
For Meyer, it is the solid foundations of Google Cloud that allow Well to focus on developing the app and refining its products to best serve its users. "Now that we’re scaling up, we’re in a phase where big things can happen at any moment," explains Meyer. "With Google Cloud, not having to worry about the stability or scalability of our platform allows us to focus on what we do best: building our business, and modernizing the Swiss healthcare system."
"Now that we’re scaling up, we’re in a phase where big things can happen at any moment. With Google Cloud, not having to worry about the stability or scalability of our platform frees us to focus on what we do best: building our business, and modernizing the Swiss healthcare system."
—Flavien Meyer, CTO, WellTell us your challenge. We're here to help.
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About Well
Well’s customer-centric healthcare platform is modernizing Switzerland’s health system. A joint venture between some of the biggest names in Swiss healthcare, including CSS, Medi24, Visana, DocMorris, Galenica, and Swiss Medical Network, it offers digital access to healthcare for everyone in the country. Launched nationally in May 2022, it reached 150,000 users in one year.