Online healthcare booking app Doctolib is to enable users to receive personalised preventive health reminders to their phone, as a way to encourage them to book essential appointments and check-ups.
The service has said that the new feature will be tailored to the user’s medical profile, such as age, sex, medical history, and previous appointments.
Notifications on the user’s smartphone will remind them to book easy-to-forget appointments for preventative healthcare such as vaccinations, screenings, and medical examinations.
Doctolib is available to download as an app for iPhones and for Android devices.
In a press release, Doctolib said: “These reminders were created in collaboration with healthcare professionals, who unfortunately often see delays in their patients’ preventative check-up dates.”
“Reminders will gradually become available in the coming days for all Doctolib users in France,” it said.
Supporting screening campaigns
The service states that the notifications are based on recommendations from official healthcare authorities (including the Haute Autorité de Santé, the Institut national du cancer, and the Assurance Maladie).
They are “fully in line with national public health objectives in terms of prevention, supporting screening campaigns, vaccination coverage and the control of infectious diseases”, it says.
It added: “Breast cancer perfectly illustrates the importance of prevention: it is the most common cancer among women and the leading cause of cancer death in women. [But] fewer than one in three women in France participate in screening, compared to 80% in other European countries.
“However, when detected at an early stage, the five-year survival rate is 99%, compared to only 26% when diagnosed late,” it said.
A view of Doctolib’s app page on the Apple App Store, including a view of notifications and how to bookApps.apple.com
Where do the notifications show up?
Depending on your settings, the notifications will appear from the Doctolib app on your phone home page, and in the ‘Health’ tab of the app. Once you have viewed the notification within the app, you can book an appointment with the appropriate healthcare professional directly from the notification, in a few clicks or taps.
The reminders are not mandatory; you can turn them off in your app and via your phone's notification settings if you wish.
What kind of reminders might I receive?
Among the reminders already available or coming soon are, for example (where applicable):
An annual dentist appointment
Cervical screening from the age of 25
Breast cancer screening
An eye test at the age of 65
A preventive health check-up
A flu vaccination during an epidemic
The 20 mandatory check-ups for children aged 0 to 16 (including 10 appointments during the first year of life).
Reminders will begin from three months before the eligibility date. For example, for cervical cancer screening at age 25, you will receive a notification at age 24 years and nine months.
Doctolib launched in 2013, created by a group of Frenchmen (Stanislas Niox-Chateau, Ivan Schneider, and Jessy Bernal) who wanted to create the “Booking.com” version of healthcare. It is now also in use in Germany and Italy.
It can be used to make a range of different medical appointments, including for some ‘alternative medicine’, and gained extra popularity during the Covid crisis, when people used it (with varying success) to book vaccination slots.
The service has not been without controversy; in 2022 it removed 17 naturopaths from its platform following pressure from the Conseil national de l'Ordre des médecins, France’s medical professional body.
At the time, the Conseil accused Doctolib of creating “confusion” between medical professionals and alternative and unregulated medicine, which is often classed under ‘wellbeing’ treatments.
However, it does also list many regular doctors and highly-regulated medical professionals, and is used (it claims) by 80 million people, and 450,000 healthcare staff.
In February 2024, it said it was planning to launch a new AI-assisted service, to help doctors save time when summarising patient appointments, provide insights, and suggest follow ups.
Other ways to receive reminders
Doctolib is not the only source of reminders or a schedule to help you remember important doctor appointments.
TheMon espace santé website (the French health insurance digital record) also has a medical calendar that enables users to find their important medical appointments.
This includes recommended and booked examinations, screenings, upcoming vaccinations, preventative check-ups. You can set up reminder notifications within the site’s app, or via email, for these too, to help ensure that you do not forget to book or attend.
