Welltime Ltd

Sophisticated software developed with the help of overseas talent could help save the NHS up to £400m a year in missed appointments.

Glasgow-based software development company Welltime Ltd offered a three-month placement to IT graduate Zohaib Najeeb from Pakistan to help develop the automated multilingual appointment management system, which allows patients to book, cancel and rearrange their appointments any time of the day or night. The system also reminds patients of upcoming appointments by sending text messages, emails and computer-generated voice calls to their landline or mobile phone.

Patients can then confirm they are coming for the appointment or cancel it, allowing the system to automatically re-allocate appointments to other needy patients on the waiting list.

To build the product, called Welltime Smart Appointment Management System (WT-SAMS), Welltime managing director Mubbasher Khanzada needed a developer with specialist technical skills and found Zohaib through The International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE), through which 80 countries world-wide exchange around 6000 high calibre technical students a year to offer employers well-qualified trainees.

Khanzada said: "It was a three-month placement, but we're seriously considering asking Zohaib whether he is available to continue with us since we will be advertising for jobs in the near future. He developed quite a key part of our solution. Our system works through a highly sophisticated distributed network application, but in layman's terms it means patients will have potential access to their appointments calendars across all 850 GP surgeries running the national GP appointments system for Scotland (GPASS), all managed from one central location.

"That's quite a cool achievement and will keep costs down as well as allowing us to provide an excellent service, because it's easy to manage with a very efficient design."

Welltime is working towards the trial of the system with the NHS, which loses an estimated £250m to £400m a year in missed appointments.

Zohaib, 23, is an IT graduate of Pakistan's highly respected National University of Science & Technology.

Case study:March 2007

CONTACT

Welltime Ltd
2/1
21 Brisbane Street
Glasgow
G42 9HX

Tel: 0141 632 0498
Email: info@welltime.co.uk
Web: www.welltime.co.uk

IAESTE
Diane Gill
Programme Officer
IAESTE UK

Tel: 0207 389 4774
Fax: 0207 389 4426
Email: Diane.Gill@britishcouncil.org
Web: www.iaeste.org.uk