Waikato District Health Board (DHB) has signed up nearly 3000 people to its Virtual DHB online healthcare service, which has been rebranded as SmartHealth and is now providing video chat capability between the renal department and transplant and dialysis patients at home.

The new service was launched earlier this year and is based on the HealthTap technology from the US, allowing patients to connect with hospital clinicians by video, phone and text through an app on their smartphone or tablet or home browser for appointments where they don't need a physical examination.