Telemedicine was once only possible for providers with enough capital to install an elaborate (and costly) infrastructure. Today, of course, the near total ubiquity of smartphones and tablets, not to mention websites with video capabilities, has made it a lot easier to go into the business.
One company hoping to take advantage of the ease with which medicine can be delivered via phone and video is Telecure.
The San Jose, Calif.-based telemedicine provider offers consumers a consultation with a qualified primary care or ED specialist (nurse practitioner-level or MD), via telephone or video on Google Helpouts, for $25 per session. The company got rolling in mid-2013 and is already booking 1,000 "visits" a month.
To learn more about Telecure, and next-gen telemedicine solutions generally, HealthcareDive spoke with the company's CEO, Garick Hismatullin. Below, here's some of what he had to say.
HEALTHCARE DIVE: How was your business funded?
GARICK HISMATULLIN: The funding was done by the partners who funded Action Urgent Care in California. Telecure came out of a understanding of healthcare delivery. (Editor's note: Telecure calls itself a "virtual branch" of AUC.)
How does your service work?
HISMATULLIN: When a patient initially calls, we have a medical assistant who takes the call and checks them in, and then within 15 minutes or so a medical provider calls them back and provides a consultation. Then, if necessary, the medical provider writes a script, and we e-prescribe it to their local pharmacy.
Right now you only offer the service in California. Do you have expansion plans?
HISMATULLIN: At the moment were only doing it in California, but we're looking to be in about 15 states by Q2 of next year. Every state has unique laws but the trend we've been seeing over the last two or three years is that more and more of them are allowing for telemedicine, or creating loopholes which telemedicine can operate.
How do you address the issue whether a patient has a worse condition than it appears during the consultation?
HISMATULLIN: We have a 100% certainty policy, where even if the provider is 99% sure [they know what's wrong] but there's some serious condition which could occur we direct them to the emergency department.
How do you use technology to deliver your services?
HISMATULLIN: One thing that's different about us is that we chose to stay away from using too much technology -- we really just wanted to be accessible to everybody. The only thing that's required is an ability to dial a phone and call somebody to get a consultation with us. So we stay away from too much web login check-in technology and apps. Our core product is really about accessibility.
Is this something independent medical practices can do, say, as an expansion to their business?
HISMATULLIN: In my personal opinion, I think starting something like Telecure is not going to be a common occurrence for practices. They might use existing providers such as Google Helpouts to expand their revenue and add additional elements, but I don't think that too many people who own urgent cares will go so far as launching their own telemedicine companies because it's really a different business.
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