Whether or not you work for a company that specializes in communication tools (after all, that’s what IVR is), you know that communication is important.

For some things, though, communication solutions are much more complicated than just implementing an IVR call center.

Take, for example, healthcare.

As the demand for quality healthcare increases globally, national and private budgets struggle to keep up with the costly coverage. Patients find it challenging to afford regular necessary visits to their doctors and the doctors can’t seem to find room in their busy schedules to accommodate an ever-growing number of patients.

To solve this problem, the Netherlands has implemented a radically new eHealth system called Curavista, and it seems to be working.

According to a recent paper issued by Anton Kool of Curavista,  “Improving Communication Between Doctor and Patient: eHealth in the Netherlands, an Established Cloud Solution,” the eHealth system implemented back in 2002 is a raging success.

Currently, the Curavista system is being used by over 1,000 doctors monitoring 50,000 patients for more than 20 different indications (like blood pressure or heart rate), however these numbers continue to grow.

Just like the IVR systems that some physical therapy doctors use with their patients to track daily progress, the Curavista system creates a forum for daily communication between doctor and patient.

Patients using the system can log online, register their “health data,” keep notes in a daily journal and see instant summary charts of their progress, all from the comfort of their homes.

Doctors, in turn, can log on from work and see all the data, summary charts and journal entries from their patients.

According to Kool, “face to face consultations not only run more effective[ly] and more efficient[ly] when using the summaries, but also more satisfactorily.”

With results like these, I imagine it’s only a matter of time before almost all healthcare plans, European and American, incorporate either an IVR daily log or an online eHealth solution much like Curavista.