The AC Camargo Cancer Center, founded in 1953 in São Paulo (SP), is an integrated model of teaching, research and multidisciplinary oncology treatment. Despite the recent developments caused by COVID-19, a healthcare institution with such importance cannot suspend patient care, at the same time as it must ensure the health of employees who are not directly involved with patients.
Therefore, the institution, which already had the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops solution on a small scale, decided to expand the number of licenses to 500 users tenfold, in order to enable the entire back office (administrative, human resources, etc.) to be able to work remotely. In addition, the teaching and research divisions were also covered, which allows students to access classes and researchers to access the contents they need and that were in their machines at the ACCamargo Cancer Center units.
Citrix was already a partner of the group, but the institution's technological park was focused on in-house installations, with a predominance of desktops over notebooks. The challenge was to provide the back office, in a short period, with a solution that would allow access to applications remotely. In addition to the acquisition of the additional licenses, there was the implementation, which was a challenge in terms of computing resources.
Rodrigo Gosling, CIO of AC Camargo Cancer Center, tells how he delivered a system that demands high availability, “we made the decision to virtualize the very workstation that the employee was already using. This deployment of at least 500 machines was done in just a week and a half. We also implemented a support routine to have wide use of the solutions, as contributors were not yet familiar with. In the end, everything went flawlessly, as the solution is very simple, even simpler than traditional VPN”.
The CIO also commented that installing and using a traditional VPN would bring security and compliance issues. In the healthcare sector where the zeal for information security is redoubled, this was not an acceptable scenario.
In the process of implementing the licenses for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD), the institution had the assistance of Tradesys, Citrix partner integrator, which provided assistance throughout the process, from deployment to infrastructure.
“As the client already had the CVAD infrastructure in place and working, we quickly created a Proof of Concept that was considered a success”, explains Rogério Silva, Tradesys commercial director.
On the human side, remote work has always been the subject of debate in several segments, including in the health area. The adoption of this solution also minimized the barriers for employees, since the implementation was carried out in a simple and fast way, accelerating the digital evolution and the users' well-being.
“The feedback from employees was very good. Our idea was to reduce the flow of people in the facilities, following the WHO recommendations, but there was skepticism about the adoption of a definitive solution and quickly. Now, we see employees eager to use the new tools and with access to the institution's workstations and all the applications they need to work”, celebrates Gosling.
“Our presence at such an important time for such a prestigious and respected institution is an accomplishment for Citrix. The ACCamargo Cancer Center cannot stop and, knowing this, we are very happy to help them maintain a healthy work environment for employees, both those who have started to work remotely and those who continue to assist patients”, declared Luciana Pinheiro , Sales Director at Citrix Brasil.
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