Taking stock of 5 start-up companies dedicated to telemedicine

According to foreign media reports, in general, people go to the doctor to spend a long time in the waiting room, sometimes waiting for nearly 1 hours to see the doctor, and according to a recent survey, people spend on average in non-emergency waiting time is 21 minutes. This 21 minutes still does not include doctor appointment, arranging wait, take the transportation arrives the hospital and so on a series of process time. The waiting time for the emergency is longer, depending on the specialist, the patient may need to wait 1 hours to 4 hours to finally see the doctor. . As a result, people will be intimidated when they hear the hospital, unless they have to be cured, or they won't set foot in the hospital.

With the development of the Internet, a group of start-ups seeking to create more convenient medical services have now emerged, linking patients and doctors through telephone, online video chats and written replies. The virtual doctor is no longer a new concept now. Since the early 2000, a number of companies (such as Teledoc and Anglo well) have begun to work to provide 24/7 of uninterrupted physician counseling through telephone and video chats. However, these services come from business organizations or healthcare organizations, and a number of start-ups are now emerging as direct consumers, attracting users with lighter, simpler services.

Virtual medical services, of course, cannot completely replace the actual face-to-face diagnosis, such as their inability to measure blood pressure and carry out related tests. Moreover, they are unable to obtain patient's medical records and the patient's previous history of personal diagnosis and treatment.

However, this kind of virtual Doctor service is more than enough to deal with minor illnesses, such as general allergies, skin diseases and sexual health problems. In fact, proponents of such services claim that telemedicine will not only save consumers a lot of time and money, but also improve the current situation of inadequate supply of Chinese medicine practitioners in the medical system. On the other hand, there are skeptics who believe that such services will sacrifice the standard and quality of medical care, thereby reducing the value of the doctor-patient relationship. However, the development of internet-based medical services is gaining strength. According to a recent article by Kaiser Tiyatien News/usa today, telemedicine services have been favored by many health insurers, including Aetna and Cigna.

Here are 5 start-ups in the United States that are involved in tele-medical services:

1.Ringadoc

Like Netflix, itunes and Spotify, Ringadoc offers an on-demand subscription service based on the healthcare industry. Ringadoc was founded in 2010 and founded in San Francisco, and the founder and CEO of the company is Jordan Mack (Jordan Michaels). With a one-time payment of 40 dollars, users can talk to a physician at any time of the day and receive counseling, diagnostics, and prescribing. This month, the company announced a 750,000-dollar seed-round financing from Founders Fund. Jordan Mack (Jordan Michaels) revealed that Ringadoc existing registered users 2000, a month will produce hundreds of medical calls, however, the company's current performance is not done any marketing in the case obtained. At present, Ringadoc has a total of 100 certified consulting doctors, its services are limited to the Gali district, but the company plans to expand its services in the next six months to more cities and regions. In addition, in the next few weeks or months, the company will launch a video chat service and direct medical products to doctors to provide a virtual way for doctors to maintain contact with existing patients.

2.Direct Dermatology

Direct Dermatology, a start-up in Palo Alto, is designed to help patients with skin diseases and shorten the diagnostic time from 1 months to 2 days. Each consultation fee requires 85 dollars, and users can register online to answer specific questions, such as their own history, a written description of their skin condition, and pictures. Direct Dermatology will provide feedback from skin disease certification experts within two working days and even prescribe relevant prescriptions. Direct Dermatology was founded in July 2010, the founder of David Wong, the company has now completed 335,000 U.S. dollars of financing. At the beginning of the year, Direct Dermatology was selected as the first member of the New York medical technology incubator startup Tiyatien.

3.HealthTap

Established in Palo Alto area in 2011, HealthTap is designed to help patients establish contact with more than 10,000 certified physicians, providing free written answers to medical questions for patients based on desktop and mobile applications. For patients, HEALTHTAP provides a quick and easy way to get reliable medical information, and for doctors, a new channel to get more new customers and build up their reputation. Doctors in HealthTap are certified, and once certified, these doctors can provide professional answers to the patients, as well as test the responses of other physicians. At present, HealthTap financing is $14 million trillion, and attracts doctors from a number of top medical institutions, such as Mount Sinai and the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland Clinic).

4.BreakThrough

Breakthrough was founded in 2009, is a direct consumer-oriented tele-psychiatric medical services. Over the past few years, breakthrough has served with medical service partners, but the company says it will support its own expenses. The reed redwood start-up allows patients to search for certified psychologists and makes expert appointments based on chat, email, telephone and customized video systems that meet the HIPAA (health Insurance Liquidity and Responsibility Act) terms. Currently, breakthrough is limited to patients in the California region, but the company says the number of users will be expected to exceed 3 million by the end of the year.

5.Sherpaa

SHERPAA Site page

SHERPAA, a recent new online medical service, was launched earlier this year to help New Yorkers establish contact with doctors. Employers pay a fixed monthly fee for each employee of the company, and patients can receive medical services from doctors and specialists based on telephone and e-mail in a 24/7-day fashion. SHERPAA has been working with Tumblr for the past 4 months, and the company says 80% of its Tumblr employees are now users of the service. Company founder Jepparkinson (Jay Parkinson) says it plans to expand the service. Sherpaa as a localized medical service, the company is very cautious in its operations, and Jepparkinson (Jay Parkinson) believes that if Sherpaa's performance in New York is good, the company will continue to expand the service in other cities.