ReelDx, Inc. is an OHSU startup company developing secure, HIPAA-compliant medical video platforms for educational and clinical use. Launched in 2013, the company’s initial goal was to improve medical instruction by creating ReelDx Education, a video library of case studies to broaden medical student’s experiences in real-world health care settings. The company has since expanded to incorporate an additional video platform, called medvid.io. This video platform is aimed at improving the patient and physician relationship through asynchronous video telemedicine, video check-in visits, and recordings of discharge instructions for patient use.
Today, ReelDx Education maintains a vibrant and growing library of over 600 video case studies, describing over 1,000 topics. Participating medical and nursing schools, physician assistant programs, and other educational systems are incorporating these videos into their curriculum to support students in the medical field. The main goal of this initiative is to provide a full and comprehensive educational platform that allows medical students the opportunity to experience and learn from a variety of clinical cases. Videos uploaded into the ReelDx Education library are filmed by teachers and trainers at participating academic medical centers, private practices, ambulatory agencies, and hospitals. Since its inception, ReelDx Education has been rapidly expanding its library, adding to their neurology, pediatrics, pre-emergency room, and eating disorder cases, to name a few. The ReelDx Education model hopes to improve upon traditional in-person medical rounds by offering supplementary case study videos in the classroom to cover situations students may need further reinforcement or exposure to during their medical training.
The ReelDX medvid.io platform aims to improve patient and physician communication by offering safe and convenient alternatives to record and review discharge instructions, patient education, and between visit check-ins. After medical appointments, many patients struggle to retain the instructions provided to them by their physician. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, patients can immediately forget 40 percent to 80 percent of the information received during their medical visit. This can be problematic for many patients, along with their family or care network, since many rely on the information given to them in order to take proactive or preventative measures for their medical condition. The medvid.io platform directly addresses this issue and offers an effective solution to help patients adhere to their medical instructions.
While medvid.io assists patients in a variety of situations, it can also prove to be a beneficial tool for physicians. The ability to quickly check in with your patient, ask follow up questions, and conduct video telemedicine appointments to quickly address any issues or ambiguity can enable physicians to continue care efficiently and effectively without necessitating a return trip to the doctor’s office.
A common question that arises about the ReelDx business model is how they manage to keep their videos secure and HIPAA compliant. When asked about the security measures of the patient videos, ReelDx CEO, Bill Kelly, stated, “We’ve built a platform from the ground-up to be HIPAA compliant. We are in the cloud, but we use encryption in storage and in transit. We also use a very rigorous, user-based security system to ensure that only authorized users can see the videos.”
Looking forward, the ReelDx team is currently researching ways to apply additional analytic features to the medvid.io platform. This includes the ability to transcribe the audio portion of the video and embed the transcript as a note in the medical record, or as searchable text in a larger library. Among other additions, ReelDx is also working with partners to add ways to automate the measurement of patient emotional responses through facial and nonverbal cues. This allows behavioral and mental health practitioners using their technological platform to get a sense of their patient’s current emotional health. With thousands of videos currently being finalized in the company’s queue, and tens to hundreds of thousands expected to be added over the next several months, Mr. Kelly expects the medvid.io platform to grow rapidly as ReelDx is poised to meet the growing demand in the telemedicine market. When asked if he had any entrepreneurial advice to give to potential company leaders, he stated, “Make sure you listen to the market and don’t listen to the skeptics.”
