Palabra Praxisgruppe GmbH
Overview/Context
Palabra is a speech therapy practice group with more than 20 practices all over Germany. One of Palabra's key objectives was to relieve speech therapists of organizational tasks such as scheduling appointments, accounting, and coordinating prescriptions and therapy plans so that they could focus fully on therapy.
In the course of digitalization, Palabra initially relied on several existing systems to map appointment management and patient management. However, it quickly became apparent that interfaces were missing, data could not be used flexibly, and processes remained fragmented in some cases.
This gave rise to the idea for “Okapi,” a proprietary, semi-automated patient management system with a secure database, smart appointment management, and integrated rule monitoring. In September 2024, cc.system was commissioned to develop this system. Six months later, the first practice was already live. Over the following months, we worked with Palabra to build an in-house tech team and gradually handed over the development of the system to this team.
Challenges for patient management systems
Patient management systems are more than just digital filing systems; they are at the heart of modern healthcare companies and offer the potential to significantly reduce the administrative burden on practices. A good system ensures that treatment plans and prescriptions are handled in accordance with regulations, supports appointment and resource planning, and facilitates communication between all parties involved.
In Germany in particular, such solutions must meet the highest data protection and compliance standards, as they work with the most sensitive data available.
Exciting projects can often be recognized by the questions they raise, and this project presented us with several very interesting challenges right from the start. In our discussions with the Palabra team, we focused primarily on the following topics:
Challenges for patient management systems
Patient management systems are more than just digital filing systems; they are at the heart of modern healthcare companies and offer the potential to significantly reduce the administrative burden on practices. A good system ensures that treatment plans and prescriptions are handled in accordance with regulations, supports appointment and resource planning, and facilitates communication between all parties involved.
In Germany in particular, such solutions must meet the highest data protection and compliance standards, as they work with the most sensitive data available.
Exciting projects can often be recognized by the questions they raise, and this project presented us with several very interesting challenges right from the start. In our discussions with the Palabra team, we focused primarily on the following topics:
CHALLENGES | SOLUTIONS | |
|---|---|---|
| How do we ensure that highly sensitive patient data is protected as effectively as possible? | The issue of security must be considered at all levels—from architecture to daily data handling:
| |
| How can we create a system that automatically checks the legal requirements for therapy planning? | Legal requirements (e.g., from the Therapeutic Products Act) are automatically checked by our system at various points in the work process:
| |
| How can we make the scheduling and booking process as efficient as possible? | A specially developed algorithm handles automated scheduling and coordination. Based on legal requirements and deadlines, as well as therapist availability, appointment suggestions are generated and made bookable. Patients can book these suggested appointments and manage or cancel their appointments themselves via a patient portal, a dedicated web application, without any additional effort on the part of the practice staff. |
CHALLENGES
How do we ensure that highly sensitive patient data is protected as effectively as possible?
SOLUTIONS
The issue of security must be considered at all levels—from architecture to daily data handling:
-
Initial risk assessment to identify potential vulnerabilities early on; penetration tests by external specialists follow development
-
Separate security zones in the infrastructure
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Encrypted storage and transmission of all data
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Role and rights system with multi-factor authentication
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Audit logging (AWS CloudTrail) for complete traceability of all accesses
CHALLENGES
How can we create a system that automatically checks the legal requirements for therapy planning?
SOLUTIONS
Legal requirements (e.g., from the Therapeutic Products Act) are automatically checked by our system at various points in the work process:
-
during the creation of prescriptions
-
during appointment scheduling
-
during billing
CHALLENGES
How can we make the scheduling and booking process as efficient as possible?
SOLUTIONS
A specially developed algorithm handles automated scheduling and coordination. Based on legal requirements and deadlines, as well as therapist availability, appointment suggestions are generated and made bookable.
Patients can book these suggested appointments and manage or cancel their appointments themselves via a patient portal, a dedicated web application, without any additional effort on the part of the practice staff.
