Main challenge

Booking care in Portugal ran on phone calls, emails and WhatsApp messages.

Patients had no single place to compare practitioners, and practitioners had no simple tools to manage their time. The client saw five problems:

  • Scattered Provider Information

    No platform compared practitioners by specialty, location, language, insurance, price and availability.

  • Hard-to-Find Specialists

    Patients with specific conditions could not tell which practitioners had the right subspecialty.

  • Manual Scheduling

    Booking ran on phone calls, email and WhatsApp, so last-minute cancellation slots were hard to fill.

  • Few Tools for Practitioners

    Practitioners could not easily manage availability, block personal time or send appointment reminders.

  • No Way to Verify

    Patients could not check qualifications, licensing, languages or insurance before they booked.

Project approach

From stakeholder workshops to a four-month MVP.

We started with workshops to map how patients, practitioners and administrators would move through the platform. Then we modelled the user flows, reviewed competing platforms and chose the architecture: React on the frontend, Python on the backend and AWS for infrastructure.

How we solved it

One marketplace for patients, practitioners, clinics and administrators.

We built a full-stack healthcare marketplace with a separate experience for each role. Patients search and book, practitioners and clinics manage their calendars and profiles, and administrators review everyone who joins the network.

  • For Patients

    Search by specialty, location, language, insurance and availability, then book, change or cancel online.

  • For Practitioners and Clinics

    Availability, time blocking, public profiles, and automatic confirmations and reminders.

  • For Administrators

    Review and approve practitioners, and request verification documents before a profile is published.

Key features

The features each role uses every day.

  • Advanced Search

    Filters for specialty, location, language, insurance network and live availability.

  • Self-Service Scheduling

    Practitioners update availability, block personal time and keep their profile current.

  • Practitioner Verification

    Administrators review, approve and request documents from each practitioner.

  • Instant Booking

    Patients book, change or cancel appointments online without a phone call.

  • Automated Reminders

    Confirmations and reminders go out automatically to reduce no-shows.

  • Transparent Profiles

    Qualifications, licensing, insurance and languages on every practitioner profile.

Business impact

What changed for patients, practitioners and administrators.

  • Patients

    Find a practitioner with the right expertise, compare price and availability, and book in minutes.

  • Practitioners and Clinics

    Run their own schedules, with automated reminders that reduced no-shows.

  • Administrators

    Review, approve and keep documents for every practitioner in one place.

One booking interface replaced phone calls, emails and spreadsheets. The platform is also ready for more languages, insurance network data and telemedicine as Wisen expands to new regions.

Outcome

A platform that keeps growing after launch.

Wisen now connects patients with verified specialists and lets clinics and independent practitioners run their own schedules. We continue to work on it together: a blog module with educational content for patients, telemedicine, a better onboarding and verification process for practitioners, and improvements to the booking experience.