[February 17, 2010] BookIT: Finland Reduces Queues for Swine Flu with Mobile Solution Tweet CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. --(Business Wire)-- New mobile apps for smartphones are receiving a lot of attention these days, but a Finnish firm, BookIT, continues to develop SMS- based solutions that make lives easier for all of us, even those of us with un-stylish, out-of-date, candy-bar clunkers. Their latest application, iSMS® scheduling, allows medical centers to eliminate queues by scheduling and confirming appointments via text message. This service has already been launched in Finland and is ready for deployment in the U.S. The first medical center in Finland to use iSMS® appointment scheduling, Lääkärikeskus, reported that the efficiency of BookIT iSMS® service exceeded expectations; in less than 24-hours more than 60% of patients used the text message service to schedule an H1N1 flu vaccination. Many replies came within just minutes. "The speed and ease of the booking process is very important to our customers. With the help of intelligent text messaging, booking appointments for swine-flu vaccination succeeded effortlessly and without queuing" says Doctor in Chief of Lääkärikeskus, Mr. Sampo Härkönen, MD. "Intelligent text messaging service from BookIT also made the work easier for our staff. Bookings over the phone consume a lot of valuable time but due to iSMS® the capacity of our staff was released to attending the patients". BookIT iSMS® appointment scheduling service is based on ubiquitous SMS so it can be implemented anywhere in the world. BookIT is already able to offer appointment scheduling to medical centers in the U.S. and Canada. According to U.S. Account Manager, Bob Batz "we are just getting underway here, but we are already able to offer appointment scheduling services to U.S. clients. We are also looking to expand services to other important areas of healthcare such as prescription refills, compliance with medications, and senior services. With all the talk of improving healthcare and cutting costs, I believe these services will be in high demand". The inventor of iSMS® technology, Mr. Jukka Salonen founded BookIT ten years ago. "My dream was to develop a mobile service that would assist citizens in everyday tasks. We all become frustrated when we have to waste our time in queues. To overcome this problem I started working on an innovation that would eliminate it by using text-messaging." To pregnant women the world-over queuing-up in the cold of winter for flu vaccinations, Mr. Salonen's iSMS® is a welcome technology fix. For more information, please contact Bob Batz, U.S. Account Manager at [email protected] or visit www.bookit.net [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]