Consult A Doctor, an innovator of telemedicine services and technology solutions, today announced the availability iDr 24/7, the first complete telemedicine application designed for the iPhone that instantly connects mobile users with board certified physicians, from anywhere, at any time, with the click of a button. At the core of the new mobile app is TeleCare 3.0, an industry proven telemedicine platform that provides real-time access to the company’s on-call provider network by phone, secure email and video chat. This powerful, intuitive app will shift care from traditional, high-cost care settings, like doctors’ offices, urgent care clinics or emergency departments, to more appropriate settings of care, ultimately reducing the overall cost of care while delivering better outcomes and improving ROI for all healthcare constituents, including employers, groups, health plans, providers and health systems.
Pioneering Mobile App Leverages the Country’s Largest National Provider Network to Provide 24/7 Access to Physicians from the Click of a Button
Miami, June 6, 2012— Consult A Doctor, an innovator of telemedicine services and technology solutions, today announced the availability iDr 24/7, the first complete telemedicine application designed for the iPhone that instantly connects mobile users with board certified physicians, from anywhere, at any time, with the click of a button. At the core of the new mobile app is TeleCare 3.0, an industry proven telemedicine platform that provides real-time access to the company’s on-call provider network by phone, secure email and video chat. This powerful, intuitive app will shift care from traditional, high-cost care settings, like doctors’ offices, urgent care clinics or emergency departments, to more appropriate settings of care, ultimately reducing the overall cost of care while delivering better outcomes and improving ROI for all healthcare constituents, including employers, groups, health plans, providers and health systems.
iDr 24/7 will be available to individuals that have a membership to the Consult A Doctor 24/7 service through their employer or health plan. The mobile app will enable members to connect with network physicians via phone and secure email messaging for live, on-demand medical consultations, including medical diagnosis, treatment, and if appropriate, prescriptions to certain medications to treat non-emergent conditions. Later in the year, the app will be made more broadly available to additional groups and their members, providers and their patients in both the practice and hospital setting as well as health plans and members.
With iDr 24/7, members will have access to My Personal Health Manager, a mobile extension of Consult A Doctor’s award winning health portal offering powerful capabilities like:
• My Consult Center – with one tap members can connect with a doctor in as little as 90 seconds, get a priority call back in under 30 minutes or schedule an appointment that is convenient for them.
• My Message Center – allows members to securely message a doctor anytime, from anywhere, all from the convenience of an iPhone.
• My Health Center – gives members the same expansive health content and patient education solutions offered by the largest health plans, hospitals and health content portals in the world. Like WebMd, My Health Center includes comprehensive content on a range of topics including conditions, symptoms, medications, first aid and access to support groups, empowering members to be healthy, stay healthy or get healthier.
“The fact is 90% of adults in the U.S. have mobile phones and the majority of these adults have their mobile phones within reach 24/7,” said Wolf Shlagman, founder and CEO, Consult A Doctor. “At Consult A Doctor we aspire to leverage our mobile technology to further reduce healthcare costs for the healthcare community. As agents of change, we are moving rapidly to deliver on the demand for faster, easier, more connected care by eliminating traditional barriers to care, such as geographic proximity to medical professionals and the high cost of care. Our design is intuitive and built for adding value for all of the organizations we partner with, including employers, groups, health plans, hospitals, clinics and providers.”
iDr 24/7 is an extension of the Consult A Doctor 24/7 service which is powered by TeleCare 3.0, a cloud-based platform that meets the highest standards for security and privacy, and has been fundamental in accelerating Consult A Doctor’s efforts to transform access and affordability in healthcare. The company currently provides configurable versions of its telemedicine platform including Consult A Doctor 24/7 for groups and employers as well as MyHealthPlan 24/7, MyPractice 24/7, MyHospital 24/7 and MyClinic 24/7.
“Telemedicine is rapidly transforming and revolutionizing healthcare at a velocity that is creating a high demand for solutions like Consult A Doctor’s to be integrated into every aspect of healthcare,” said Shlagman. “Much like Minute Clinic’s growth, which rose from less than 100,000 visits in 2006 to over 10 million visits in late 2011, we realistically foresee 100 million individuals per year accessing virtual care services and transactions by 2015. Our revolutionary, cloud-based TeleCare 3.0 telemedicine services delivery platform is proving that we can deliver faster access to quality care at the lowest cost, all the while improving outcomes for payers, hospitals, providers, employers and consumers. Consult A Doctor’s goal is to be the ‘Intel Inside’ of healthcare, powering simple, reliable and fast healthcare access and delivery for tens of millions.”
Consult A Doctor plans to roll out the app to other smart phones, including the Android, later this year.
About Consult A Doctor
Consult A Doctor is the leading innovator of cloud-based telemedicine services and technology platform solutions empowering organizations to lower healthcare costs, provide revolutionary access and improve outcomes. With years of experience delivering direct-to-employer and consumer telemedicine services that offer convenient 24/7 access to doctor consultations by phone, email and video, Consult a Doctor has saved employers millions of dollars in unnecessary healthcare costs. Its telemedicine network of U.S. board certified physicians in all 50 states has made it possible to give on-demand care, anytime, anywhere with access to care in the lowest cost setting. Consult A Doctor is further transforming the economic equation of care by partnering with payers, providers, health systems and other organizations to deploy TeleCare 3.0, its telemedicine services delivery platform that grants its members and patients unmatched access to quality care, offers a new revenue source for providers, and lowers costs for health plans, employers and groups. For more information about Consult A Doctor, please visit www.consultadr.com, email telecare@consultadr.com or call 888-688-DOCT (3628).
