With companies continuing to work remotely, maintaining a sense of connection outside of the office is a challenge that many organisations face. Salaso is an online platform which delivers exercise instruction to physiotherapy patients and provides exercise training for organisations.
The company has its headquarters in the Tom Crean Centre at Kerry Technology Park in Tralee, with sales and support offices in the UK and US.
“The 15-strong team based in Tralee is part of a larger international team that includes physiotherapists, IT and multimedia professionals, business development and project management,” says Salaso chief executive Aoife Ní Mhuirí.
“I started the company in 2011 with a vision to enhance people’s lives through exercise and physical activity by combining evidence-based exercise content, multimedia e-learning techniques and technology,” she says.
It was a vision that Ní Mhuirí was able to hold through the pandemic.
“As a technology company, with teams working in several countries and time zones, we were able to quickly adapt to a fully remote working environment,” she says.
“As part of our mobilisation plan to switch to fully remote, our teams were able to take any equipment from the office, such as laptops and screens, and bring them to their home. Every team member has embraced the change and continues with their drive and dedication to our core purpose, which is to advance physical health and wellbeing for all to enable people to live active, healthy lives.”
Moving to remote working means conducting daily and weekly meetings through MS Teams, and also using some of the company’s own research and delivery to help employees find a healthy balance. “Ensuring that all our team are fully supported to adapt to the new working environment is very important to us,” says Ní Mhuirí.
“We have a few initiatives to support our teams such as an employee assistance programme, and additionally we use one of our own platforms, Salaso Fit, to incorporate exercise and movement into our daily routine and create regular employee wellbeing challenges to support our team in taking care of their own health.”
Significant uptake
A focus on delivering healthcare content remotely is bound to see more demand during a pandemic, and foreseeing that rise was an essential part of the work for Salaso over the past three months.
“We had a significant uptake in the numbers of services delivering physiotherapy and other allied health services through our platform since the start of March,” says Ní Mhuirí.
“When the first coronavirus cases were reported, we put a large percentage of our resources to help healthcare teams adapt to this crisis. With the support of our existing clients, and with rapid uptake by hospitals and private practices, our platform is ensuring healthcare systems can deliver safe and efficient patient care remotely across many different areas of healthcare.
“Our platform is used to support patients in orthopaedics, rheumatology, neurology, cancer care, and many other areas, access the expertise of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and consultants.
“Ultimately we believe that this model will provide access to care for many people who previously would not have been able to get access to this type of specialist care.”
While Salaso will work remotely for the foreseeable future, Ní Mhuirí sees the company poised to be able to continue to deliver healthcare solutions to an even bigger audience.
“As our technology and R&D office in the Tom Crean Centre is a large shared office, we do not plan to bring the staff back into the office this summer,” she says. “We will continue to work remotely and monitor the virus in the community until such time as we feel it is safe to bring the team back.
Infrastructure
“The Covid-19 crisis will have a lasting impact globally, and the way societies and economies go about their day-to-day business has been reshaped. As a company we are fortunate that we have the infrastructure to continue serving our customers in a remote setting,” says Ní Mhuirí.
“The healthcare industry has had to rethink its delivery model and has made significant inroads with its adoption of technology. Additionally, we are delighted that we can extend our offering to those working remotely in non-health sectors too.”