Montreal virtual healthcare platform Dialogue is partnering with the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation to extend its Virtual Clinic trial.

The completely free online clinic will offer virtual services to more than 1,000 Quebecers affected by breast cancer. The virtual clinic will be staffed by a team of medical professionals.

Those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past five years will be able to access the virtual clinic services, as will their loved ones. For Dialogue, the creator of the clinic, the service is ideal for quickly communicating with doctors and nurses during the current setbacks presented by social distancing measure.

“We officially launched the clinic two weeks ago. The goal here is that the service that is offered to everyone who got the news within the past five years because that news stays with them for a long time,” said Dialogue COO Jean-Nicolas Guillemette. “We wanted to make sure that when you have questions about your health along the journey, you can connect with our medical professional team. They can treat you and prescribe medication if needed.”

Dialogue is a Canadian telemedicine provider, offering virtual healthcare to employers to improve the health and well-being of employees and families.

The company previously set up the trial clinic in 2019, thinking it would be a great way to contribute and learn about breast cancer. Their medical team went through training in breast cancer awareness.

While they won’t actually treat the cancer itself, they can offer support for mental health challenges associated with the journey of having breast cancer.

“It’s to reduce all the day-to-day stress that they might go through. It’s not removing everything, but we we truly believe that we saw the results over the last year where people really appreciated it. The level of satisfaction is very high with the Breast Cancer Foundation members and we’re really happy,” said Guillemette.

No government funding was used for the virtual clinic. Guillemette said it is entirely a partnership between Dialogue and the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation. The goal is to closely work together at the benefit of their members.

But why was breast cancer important for the folks at Dialogue, a platform that addresses the wide array of health challenges?

“To be honest this was a cause that we deeply care about,” said Guillemette. “We know how many women are impacted by breast cancer and we believed this was a way for us to give back, but also to evolve as a company. We wanted to send a clear message to our employees that we want to support the community and help as much as we can.”

And while it started as a pilot project, it has now grown into a full virtual clinic.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to expand those partnerships with other cancer foundations across Quebec and Canada. We believe this is the first step in the right direction. Everyone who experiences stress and sadness in getting cancer should have access to more support, and Dialogue will play a small role in this,” added Guillemette.

In over 25 years, the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation has raised over $50 million and invested it in Quebec, in cutting-edge research. These funds have also also invested to support innovation, awareness and education.