Case Study - Psychological Care with a Social Purpose

Overview

Mente Serena is a psychological telemedicine platform for Colombia. Instead of an open directory, it is a closed and curated marketplace: professionals are validated before they can offer sessions, and the fee for each session depends on the patient's SISBEN group, the country's socioeconomic classification. The goal is simple: make quality psychological care more humane, fair, and accessible.

An early prototype existed. falcani rebuilt the product on a new, modern, secure foundation, keeping only the interface patterns that had worked, for a sensitive domain where privacy and trust come first.

Our Solutions

1. Three experiences, one platform A patient area to search for professionals, book sessions, keep a private journal, and manage credits; a professional area with dashboard, session requests, agenda, calendar, patient list, notes, and finances; and an admin console to validate professionals and SISBEN documents, set fees and rules, publish announcements, run the waitlist, review user reports, and follow platform activity and the audit trail.

2. Fairness built into the fee model Fees are fixed by the platform and depend on the patient's SISBEN group. Patients upload their SISBEN document and an AI-assisted reader suggests their group, but the suggestion is never final: a member of the Mente Serena team confirms or corrects it before the fee changes, and until then the standard fee applies. Every session keeps a snapshot of the fee it was booked with, so later changes never alter past sessions.

3. Privacy by design Journal entries are private to the patient and encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. A professional only sees the fragments the patient chooses to share, and the patient can withdraw them at any time. Professional session notes and payout details are encrypted too, access is role-based, administrative actions leave an audit trail, and the platform is designed around Colombia's personal data law (Habeas Data). If a journal entry contains signs of crisis, the platform gently shows help resources and never blocks the user. It matches a fixed, transparent list of phrases rather than using AI, and nothing about the signal is stored or sent to anyone.

4. Scheduling and video sessions that run themselves Reminders before each session, automatic cancellation of requests nobody answers, waitlist notifications, escalation of overdue session summaries, and video-room provisioning run as background jobs, so patients and professionals do not have to chase each other. In-app notifications arrive in real time and are mirrored by email.

5. A verified directory and clear rules A public directory of verified professionals who choose to be listed and have the social commitment active, a "how it works" guide for patients and professionals, a page of mental health helplines organized by department, a crisis help button in the app header, and legal pages covering terms, privacy, personal data processing, cancellations, and keeping sessions inside the platform.

6. A calm, human interface A warm visual language, plain Colombian Spanish, consistent roles ("consultante" and "profesional"), and an interface designed for people who may be anxious or tired: readable type and large touch targets.

Results

• A telepsychology platform built end to end for patients, professionals, and administrators, ready for pilot use
• A fee model that adapts to each patient's situation, with a human validation step behind it
• Sensitive information protected with encryption, roles, and an audit trail
• Reminders, automatic cancellations, escalation of overdue summaries, and payout-cycle accounting automated in the background
• A platform covered by automated unit and integration tests and browser-based end-to-end checks of its critical flows

What we did