The Doctor Will See You Now — On Your Webcam

NY TIMES -- American Well aims to reinvent the house call.

If Dr. Roy Schoenberg, the start-up’s co-founder and chief executive, has his way, patients will no longer have to wait a month to see a doctor, they will log on to their computers and find themselves face-to-face with physicians over Webcam.

Consumers are bombarded with health information from their insurance companies and from the Web, often full of advice from writers or fellow patients, not physicians. “What we’re missing is the very bare-bones health care: talking to a doctor. That’s why I started American Well,” said Dr. Schoenberg, a doctor who has founded two other software companies. He co-founded American Well with his brother, Ido Schoenberg.

He has big plans for the potential of the service to address health care reform in the United States. So far, policy makers’ approach to health care reform has been antiquated, he said. “We need to take a fresh look at what’s available in 2008. Online care means that without reworking the budget, without going through Congress, we can bring affordable health care to people who cannot access it,” he said.

Comment: While politicians and bureaucrats in Washington dream up the next grandiose government health care reform to address rising healthcare costs, the most effective, affordable and convenient healthcare solution might be right on your laptop computer's webcam.

HT: NCPA