Better patient outcomes and safer healthcare in Australia

How we’re achieving high-quality and safe care through telehealth.

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Dr Ramy Bishay

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Building a better system

While most experts agree that telehealth provides better access to care, some say it risks patient safety and believe seeing a patient in-person is the only safe way to deliver treatment.

We don’t agree.

At Juniper, we believe that high-quality and safe care can be achieved by giving doctors modern tools and technology to treat patients, from anywhere and everywhere.

That's why we offer Juniper patients online doctor consultations, giving them the freedom to speak to their doctor at their convenience and from the comfort of their own home.

Building a better system

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We prioritise
patient safety

Happy woman opening Juniper box

We prioritise
patient safety

Juniper’s parent company, Eucalyptus, is the only telehealth company in Australia with certification from the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS). This required an independent assessment of the safety and quality of our clinical service, and our auditing system.

We audit more than 4,000 consults each month to constantly improve the safety and quality of the Juniper program for our patients. We believe this is an enormous benefit of telehealth.

Our medical support team of registered doctors, pharmacists and nurses are here to support all of our patients, whenever they need it. We believe we can work together with the wider healthcare industry to consider how technology can provide safer care to patients.

Addressing what's in the news

Telehealth has been discussed a lot in the media recently, so we’d like to share how it really works at Juniper.

Can you get prescriptions just by completing the quiz and not talking to a Juniper doctor?
Juniper patients complete a detailed pre-consultation questionnaire with up to 100 questions to collect a comprehensive medical history. The questionnaire is reviewed by an Australian doctor or nurse practitioner, who is bound by the same rules and regulations as all Australian GPs.

The doctor or practitioner then sends a message to the patient via the Juniper app. Both doctors and patients are able to ask any necessary questions.

Doctors and practitioners have access to a full set of tools on the Juniper platform – they can request photos, blood tests, ask for measurements such as blood pressure and external validation of medical history from the patient.
They can also make phone or video calls if they choose.

Medications are only ever prescribed by an Australian doctor or nurse practitioner. Almost 40% of patients who enter a consult aren’t deemed eligible and are instead referred to a face-to-face GP.
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Many patients learn new information which they can take back to their local GP for treatment – we have diagnosed many patients with pre-diabetes they did not know about which they can take back to their local GP for treatment.
Do telehealth platforms compromise on patient care?
One of the benefits of telehealth is that it allows us to maintain regular contact with our patients through our wider care team of nurses, health coaches and more. Unlike when a patient leaves their local GP’s office, the contact with their doctor stops immediately and they often have to wait weeks to get their next appointment.

Patients increasingly don’t have one consistent, regular GP with 31.8% of Australians reporting seeing multiple GPs in the previous 12 months1 and 42% of respondents aged under 30 attending multiple GP practices2.

With Juniper, our treatment continues and we provide our patients with ongoing support throughout their Juniper journey. This includes regular check-ins and follow-up consultations with their GP or nurse practitioner, lifestyle coaching from our health coaches, dietitians and nutritionists, medical support from our registered nurses and pharmacists, and much more.
Are telehealth services as thorough as in-person consults?
Telehealth is a different way of communicating with a doctor that is subject to the same rules as one you see face-to-face. All doctors on the Juniper platform are Fellows of the RACGP, which means that they have taken additional training and assessment to practice independently.

Juniper’s parent company, Eucalyptus, has been certified by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards against the EQuIP6 standards (similar to the certification that most GP clinics receive) and is the only telehealth company to be certified in this way.

We believe our patients receive a deeper healthcare experience over several months of regular use of our platform than what is possible through short and irregular consults with a local GP.
Are telehealth providers just big businesses trying to make profits?
Eucalyptus is privately funded and billed, meaning it does not access the $12.4 billion from Medicare that GPs do3. Instead, we’ve saved the Australian Federal Government $25-30 million in the past 4 years4.

We are a supplement to the public healthcare system and employ Australian doctors, nurses and other medical professionals.
80% would recommend Juniper to a friend6
90% of patients feel positive about their weight loss journey6
100,000+ Aussie women helped

Our patient process

A multidisciplinary process to deliver high-touch, high-quality care.

1
Pre-consultation questionnaire
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A patient completes a detailed pre-consultation questionnaire of up to 100 questions before speaking to one of our GPs or nurse practitioners, who review the information.
2
Doctor consultation
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The patient is then assigned to a doctor or nurse practitioner, who begins a text-based consultation with the patient. The patient can ask any questions they like and can respond when it's convenient for them.

30-40% of patients will be considered unsuitable for treatment by the doctor or nurse practitioner at this stage, and redirected to their local GP with additional information.

If suitable for treatment, the doctor or nurse practitioner will prescribe a tailored treatment plan, and the patient can then decide to proceed or not.
3
Pharmacy dispensing
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Our treatment plans include the patient’s medical information with their prescription, allowing a partner pharmacy to provide an extra layer of safety with specific counselling for patients.

The patient can choose to have their script fulfilled by a Juniper partner pharmacy or can receive the script to fill at their local pharmacy.

If the patient chooses a Juniper partner pharmacy, the pharmacy will dispense the medication and arrange for it to be delivered to the patient’s home.

As many Juniper patients are located in regional and remote areas, most treatments are delivered.
4
Ongoing medical support
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The patient then begins the Weight Reset Program, where they have unlimited follow-up consults with their prescribing doctor or nurse practitioner, and ongoing support from our medical support team of registered nurses and pharmacists, our health coaches and operational support staff.

They can track their progress, access on-demand video education and recipes, and check-in with our health coaches in the Juniper app.
5
Clinical auditing of patient safety
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Juniper teams consistently monitor prescribing decisions through extensive clinical audits, side effects through detailed tracking and analysis, and patient outcomes on numerous treatment plans.

Created by the best minds in weight management

An integrated team of doctors and dietitians will manage your care plan as your weight journey evolves

Doctor Ramy Bishay
Endocrinologist
Dr Ramy Bishay
BSc (Hons), MSc (Hons), MBBS (Hons), FRACP
Doctor Matthew Vickers
Specialist GP
Dr Matthew Vickers
MBBS, FRACGP
health coach Leif
Health Coach
Leif Lagesen
APD, BSND (hons), BSportExM

Our doctors are all registered with AHPRA and based in Australia

Juniper’s doctors are Fellows of the RACGP, meaning they have passed additional exams entitling them to practise independently.

They are experienced in weight management and community practice, with many of them also practicing in GP clinics.

We're not replacing GPs

Juniper Platform

We're not replacing GPs

Australia's healthcare system is strained and expensive. Juniper aims to complement the system and make it more accessible and efficient for both patients and healthcare professionals with our telehealth platform.

Our platform improves access to care for patients, particularly those in regional areas who experience long commutes and wait times to visit their local GP.

References

  1. National Health Performance Authority. Healthy communities: Frequent GP attenders and their use of health services in 2012–13. Sydney: NHPA, 2015.
  2. Wright M, Hall J, van Gool K, Haas M. How common is multiple general practice attendance in Australia? Aust J Gen Pract. 2018 May;47(5):289-296. doi: 10.31128/AJGP-11-17-4413. PMID: 29779298.
  3. https://www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/2021/september/general-practice-and-primary-healthcare-health-exp
  4. This is a conservative estimate based on the fact that GPs on Eucalyptus’s platform have undertaken over 700,000 consultations, each of which would have been eligible for a $39.75 Medicare rebate if provided in a physical clinic.
  5. https://www.racgp.org.au/general-practice-health-of-the-nation-2022
  6. Juniper Lifestyle Survey of 203 current patients, December 2022