Unlocking Better Patient Care with Alethea: An Interview with Dr. Glenda Maclean

When it comes to providing timely, high-quality care, primary care providers face a growing challenge, balancing patient needs with long specialist wait times and complex referral processes. Dr. Glenda Maclean, a Calgary-based family physician at Southport Family Practice, shares how Alethea has transformed the way she delivers care to her patients.

Discovering Alethea: A New Approach to Specialist Access

Dr. Maclean first learned about Alethea when a colleague invited Alethea to demonstrate the platform at her clinic. Initially, she used Alethea for quick consultations, such as sharing otoscope images of eardrums and sending dermatology photos for expert opinions, especially useful during the pandemic when in-person visits were limited.

She quickly realized the platform’s broader potential. While working in a senior care facility, she found Alethea particularly valuable for elderly patients with mobility challenges who struggled to attend in-person specialist visits. Instead of waiting months for a traditional referral, she could get timely expert advice without patients having to leave their homes.

Improving Patient Outcomes with Faster Specialist Insights

One of the biggest advantages Dr. Maclean has seen while using Alethea is how it enhances both patient care and satisfaction. For complex cases, patients appreciate knowing their physician has consulted a specialist, reinforcing their confidence in the care they receive.

Beyond reassurance, Alethea also streamlines the diagnostic process. Dr. Maclean highlights how long specialist wait times can delay necessary investigations, but with Alethea, she can begin the workup while the patient waits for their in-person consultation. This proactive approach ensures patients are better prepared when they finally see a specialist, avoiding additional delays.

A Better Alternative to Traditional Referral Methods

Compared to conventional referrals, Alethea drastically improves efficiency. Dr. Maclean often receives specialist advice the same day, something that’s nearly impossible with traditional referral systems.

She also prefers Alethea over telephone-based specialist consultation services because it allows for more flexibility. Instead of coordinating phone calls in the middle of a busy clinic day, she can submit a consultation at a convenient time and receive a response when it fits into her workflow.

Her Favourite Alethea Feature: The Collaborative Approach

What stands out most for Dr. Maclean is Alethea’s ability to facilitate multi-specialist collaboration. She has seen cases where one specialist, unsure of the best approach, consults another specialist within the platform, creating a roundtable discussion effect. Instead of patients waiting months to see multiple specialists separately, they receive insights from multiple experts within days, something she describes as "almost unheard of" in traditional healthcare settings.

For Dr. Maclean, Alethea has become an essential tool in her practice, offering fast, expert-driven insights that enhance patient care and reduce unnecessary delays. Whether helping seniors who struggle with mobility, optimizing patient workups while waiting for in-person consults, or facilitating specialist collaboration, Alethea has proven to be a valuable asset in modern primary care.

To hear more from Dr. Maclean and see how Alethea can benefit your practice, watch the full interview below.

Interested in learning more about Alethea? Sign up for free or schedule a demo and start transforming your patient care experience.