Case Studies: Aetna

Quality Care through Strategic Online Learning

"The great thing about LearnLinc is that it lets live online instructors control class presentations using synchronized multimedia and content available over the Web," explains Blair. "It also offers application sharing, electronic hand raising, and a glimpse feature that lets instructors acquire a screen capture of any student's desktop." Dave Blair Aetna U.S. Health Care

Aetna U.S. Healthcare, one of three core Aetna Inc. businesses, is a leading $15.5 billion healthcare benefits provider with nearly 16 million health members. Few companies can match Aetna U.S. Healthcare's broad spectrum of products, including a full range of health, prescription drug, dental and vision plans, as well as group insurance products such as life, disability and long-term care.

At Aetna U.S. Healthcare, they believe in a philosophy of care and customer service that brings together patients, physicians, employers, academic medical centers and health plans to form a partnership that results in patient-centered, coordinated healthcare. To adhere to its philosophy, Aetna U.S. Healthcare is continually seeking better ways to communicate and train to ensure its members receive the care they need.

Dave Blair, training director for Aetna's healthcare division, came face-to-face with a decision that would ultimately match Aetna's philosophy of care and quality customer service with a cost-effective, online training program. Blair spent five months researching online training technologies and came away enthralled.

Top management was less enthusiastic but approved Blair's initiative to implement virtual classroom software. The next step was to find a provider that could understand Aetna's training needs and match those needs with the right technology. Aetna looked at three leading vendors and finally decided on LearnLinc from iLinc Communications. This system requires less bandwidth and delivers the quality interactive experiences that Blair was looking for in a Web conferencing solution.

Unlike a video-based training option that Blair tested, which turned out to be too intensive and an exhaustive training experience for instructors and students, LearnLinc allows students the opportunity to verbally or electronically contribute only after the instructor passes the room control to the student. The iLinc software is supporting Aetna's efforts to improve communication and training, while remaining a cost-effective long-term solution.