Savia is MAPFRE‘s digital healthcare platform dedicated to telemedicine services. It offers patients the ability to have medical consults remotely, via video call, chat messages, or over the phone. It also offers a symptom checker that uses artificial intelligence to provide information about any illnesses patients may have.

Why did you decide to support the #YoPacienteDigital project? How will this study impact your company?

Savia believes that providing people with streamlined, flexible tools to manage their health is essential in this day and age. The digital transformation is upon us and we are committed to leveraging its benefits to the utmost to ensure everyone’s well-being. That’s why joining the #YoPacienteDigital project is a great opportunity to use telemedicine to improve the Spanish healthcare system. Additionally, collaborating on an initiative that promotes technological development and digital innovation is also beneficial to us.

How are you using telemedicine in your company? 

Savia has been committed to telemedicine for over a year, providing patients with video consultations and chat messaging with doctors via their cell phones. Our platform offers services to complement in-person appointments, and users are often the ones to determine whether to go with a remote telemedicine consult rather than an in-person consult. With this platform, physicians and other healthcare workers in up to ten different specialties can respond to questions immediately and provide answers in real time. Savia offers a number of specialized physicians including pediatricians, gynecologists, nutritionists, psychologists, and even personal trainers. Patients who use the platform also have an online prescription option, allowing many prescription-related in-office consultations to be carried out on a smartphone. To do this, we offer a platform available both on the app (available on the App Store and Google Play) as well as on a website optimized for mobile use.

What is a digital patient for you?

Savia does not believe that there are digital and non-digital patients, rather that people use different tools and services based on their needs. The same way that people use their phones today to listen to music, watch movies, and chat with their friends, they can also use Savia to speak with their doctor via chat or video call. Based on their needs, the users are the ones who make the decision regarding when to use telemedicine and when to see a doctor in person.

During the Covid-19 crisis, Savia, Mapfre’s online medical platform, has been available for free. How do you think Savia will develop in the future, post crisis? 

The Covid-19 crisis is a watershed moment for the digitalization of all industries, especially healthcare. Given the nature of this crisis, telemedicine has become essential for users. 

At the beginning of lockdown, MAPFRE decided to offer Savia’s digital services (video consultations, chats, etc.) free of charge. That decision allowed more than 100,000 people to use our services in that stage, preventing trips to clinics and hospitals during such a precarious time. At least 10% of consultations on the platform during this time were Covid-related. However, the vast majority were related day-to-day healthcare needs: appointments with pediatricians, gynecologists, and primary care doctors. Especially during the final phase of lockdown, there were also a number of appointments made with psychologists, nutritionists, and even personal trainers. 95% of users were highly satisfied with the telemedicine services.

The free period for this service ended at the beginning of July, and we now expect the people who were satisfied with telemedicine to continue using our services.

It is also worth noting that many companies have approached Savia during this time to be able to offer their employees, family members, and clients the telemedicine services provided on the platform. We are proud to report that we are now providing these services to over 400 companies.

Savia has been collaborating with startups to include digital services. What are the benefits of collaborating with startups?

Savia builds its services in close collaboration with a number of healthtech startups, and currently utilizes the digital services of five startups. This allows us to respond dynamically to our users’ needs as they arise while keeping user satisfaction high.

In order to adopt disruptive solutions for the insurance industry we have our own startup engagement program, Insur_space, MAPFRE’s fast-track-to-market program for startups in early stage and growth phases. Its purpose is to foster disruption by launching joint pilots with the startups, providing them with access to customers, knowledge, data and funding.