Companies Emerge Offering Remote Text-Based Primary Care Consultations

In a recent note, I explored the difference betweenvirtual care andtelemedicine (see:Understanding the Distinction between Virtual Care and Telemedicine). Here is the explanation copied from the note:Simply put, the term virtual care is a way of talking about all the ways patients and doctors can use digital tools to communicate....While telemedicine refers to long-distance [direct and visual] patient care, virtual care is a much broader term that refers to a variety of digital healthcare services.This made a lot of sense to me when I wrote the note but long-distance care is growing more complex. A recent article described a new example of remote primary care but without the"tele" feature (see:Smartphone Apps Enable Healthcare Consumers to Receive Primary Care without Traditional Office Visits....). Below is an excerpt from it:Two companies on the forefront of such advances are98point6 andK Health, and they provide a glimpse of primary care ’s future.The two companies have developed smartphone apps that incorporate AI and the ability to interact with real physicians via text messaging....The [98point6] service involves “providing virtual text-based primary care across the entire country, 24/7 of everyday”....It ’s text-based delivery of care overlaid with an AI platform on top of it.....98point6 offers the service through individual subscriptions or through deals with employers, health plans, health systems, and other provider organizations.The persona...

Source: Lab Soft News - January 23, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Public Health Telemedicine Source Type: blogs