Tobias Tree

Sending an alert is done in a few simple steps.

1. Open Tobias Tree.
2. Login through SecureMailbox.
3. Choose the subspecialities to which the emergency question should be directed.
4. Enter a short, descriptive heading for the case.
5. Author some free text describing the case. Keep this short, excluding personal data.
6. Press the POST CASE-button.

When your smartphone receives an alert, a flash with the heading and the beginning of the free text will appear. 

1. Tap the flash and log in. If you don’t acknowledge the alert right away, a reminder-signal will sound every half hour, or at an interval of your choice.
2. Once the alert has been acknowledged, the full text will be shown on the screen, together with a RESPOND-button. If you do not want to respond, return to the list of cases. If not responded to, a case will be saved for a period of 30 days and it is possible to respond to it during this time, unless the case is closed by the doctor who sent the question.
3. When RESPOND is pressed, an answer can be written and sent to the doctor who created the case. From this point doctors at both ends are directed to the extremely secure environment in SecureMailbox where they can communicate and share documents. A group can be formed involving some of, or all, the doctors who have responded to the alert.

Current cases are easily found through two listings of alerts, one with incoming cases and one with the cases you have created.

When a case is closed by the doctor who sent the question, the case will be deleted from the system. Alerts that have not attracted any response, will automatically be deleted after a period of 30 days.

Nobody, except the doctors who are communicating around a case, can see or follow the communication as this takes place in the SecureMailbox environment.

The problem today in unusual and acute situations is that the doctors are dependent on personal knowledge, on contacts or on searching the web for answers. The most recent knowledge, from the patient that was treated yesterday on the other side of the world, is of course not yet publicly available. Treatises take years to write, case studies (normally only written when a case has had a successful ending) take at least a year. At present the method most frequently used is still to search the web for such papers, a very time-consuming occupation. One of the quickest ways to participate in understanding the most recent findings is to visit the next annual specialist’s conference somewhere in the world. 

Often doctors within a certain field gather in interest groups using e-mail lists. Putting an emergency question in such a list is however likely to fail, as it may very well get lost in the noise. Contacts with other specialities would also be totally absent.

Many large hospitals have special groups for unusual diagnoses, but these groups are not always able to come up with an answer or solution, for example if the situation is not related to a specific diagnose. It could be caused by medicines or combinations of different diagnoses and conflicting drugs. The acute problematic situations the doctors can face are countless.

With Tobias Tree, the knowledge and experience can be available instantly. The dissemination of developments in research and treatments is speeded up dramatically. Lives can be saved.