Using iPLATO’s Patient Care Messaging Dr Masterton & Partners practice in Lambeth has discovered that mobile messaging is the most effective tool for rapid communication with patients about immunisation. In a recent flu-jab campaign the practice administrator identified 152 patients due for a flu jab and sent them a text message requesting them to turn up for immunisation the following day or to decline the flu-jab clinic by reply text message. Within two minutes of sending the practice had received feedback from 32 of the contacted patients. In total 44% of the contacted patients responded to the flu jab campaign either by declining the clinic or by showing up, making it one of the most effective flu jab campaigns ever undertaken by the practice.

“We have been using iPLATO’s Patient Care Messaging for automatic appointment reminders since March 2005, says Adrian James-Morse, the practice IT manager. In this case we used the system’s group mailing feature and the result was remarkable from the surgery’s and our patients’ perspective. The mobile channel offers unparalleled speed in contacting people wherever they may be with a clear and actionable message. Many patients answered the flu-jab reminder with their mobile proving the medium is a two way interaction tool rather than just one-way broadcasting. With other means of communication - letter or calling - this campaign method does not only compare well on speed, communication quality and response rate, it is also cheaper to produce and manage.”

“Dr Masterton & Partners has really done a good job designing a powerful flu-jab campaign using existing features of our text messaging platform says Toby Gockel, Business Development Manager at iPLATO. Looking at the ability for practices to target certain patient groups with up-to-the-second messages really speaks volumes for the platform which is designed to work also at significantly higher messaging volumes as would be the case, for example, in a pandemic. It also puts the GPs firmly in the driver seat in looking after their patients who do not have to rely only on messages from more generic sources such as TV and radio”.

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London, 8th November 2005: Business communication specialist, Premiere Global Services (PGS), and leading mobile healthcare messaging company iPLATO, today announced an alliance aimed at broadening their healthcare reminder offering to customers in the UK and Northern Europe. Under the agreement, iPLATO’s Patient Care Messaging service will now offer voice reminders alongside its traditional text messaging services, whilst PGS will integrate iPLATO’s mobile technology services into its healthcare Alerts and Notifications offering. Research shows that ten million GP appointments, four million practice nurse appointments and seven million outpatient appointments are missed annually and 30 per cent of these missed meetings are down to patients simply forgetting.

“For some patient groups such as the elderly, text messaging is simply not appropriate,” says Tobias Alpsten, managing director, iPLATO. “This alliance gives us the opportunity to offer voice messages through a market leading platform, to patients’ fixed line phones. Essentially, this deal makes us a more complete patient communication provider and enables us to compete more effectively for national contracts.”

“We are delighted to be partnering with iPLATO to further develop our Alerts and Notifications service in the healthcare sector,” comments Simon Bushell, general manager, Premiere Global Services, UK and Northern Europe. “Our experience has shown that voice messaging is a cost effective and compelling delivery medium for patient appointment reminders and other notification and confirmation applications. This partnership brings together the leading players in the market to deliver a comprehensive, highly integrated and scalable offering to the healthcare sector”,

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Notes for Editors:

About Premiere Global Services (formerly Xpedite)

Premiere Global Services (formerly Xpedite) is a leading global provider of innovative business communications and data services. Customers use our ASP platform to process and deliver large quantities of individualized, business critical information via enhanced Email, Fax, Voice and SMS. Premiere Global Services offers outsourced document delivery, data capture, alerts/notifications and campaign marketing solutions that automate customers’ business processes and improve efficiency levels enterprise-wide. We also offer a full suite of VoIP-based collaboration sessions and conferencing solutions, including automated, operator-assisted and Web collaboration services that enable customers to communicate real-time via our advanced, open standards global conferencing platform.

Premiere Global serves more than 46,000 corporate accounts in nearly every business sector, throughout 19 countries worldwide. Our corporate headquarters is located at 3399 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 700, Atlanta, GA 30326.

Additional information can be found at [1] www.premiereglobal.co.uk or contact our local office in the United Kingdom on +44 (0)20 7444 0700.