Automated telemedicine is coming to every home

When people without health insurance experience suspicious symptoms, they often rely on an internet search to decide whether the situation is dire enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room.

However, by the time they seek help, the condition may have advanced to the point where care is complicated and expensive. Or, those without urgent need may end up wasting valuable emergency room resources to perform a screening service that could have been done elsewhere for a fraction of the cost.

The irony of strict regulation is that while it drives up the quality of care, it also drives up costs, making it unreachable for those without health insurance. The fact that few for-profit screening services exist outside of health insurance ecosystems suggests the cost of FDA approval makes it prohibitively expensive to develop low-cost solutions. This leaves no options for the poor.

But in many ways that is changing. GYANT, a San Francisco-based startup, recently launched a free app that can screen patients for the Zika virus, based on symptoms. It does not perform tests, or analyze images of the patient, but rather asks questions such as: “Have you traveled internationally in the last four weeks?” Or “Are you experiencing a fever?” After a few  questions, GYANT, rather than diagnosing, gives a percentage in which the patient’s symptoms match those of a Zika virus-affected patient.

Prior to GYANT, most developers launched digital health apps on private, secure portals so they could control the flow of patient information. GYANT found a way to launch its app on Facebook’s Messenger. They now have more than 450,000 users and claim to have accumulated the world’s second-largest set of Zika data. The company recently took the technology a step further and can now help identify approximately 350 common health concerns.

 

Another San Francisco company, insurance daily, offers prescriptions for straightforward conditions, like urinary tract infections. The $15 process is almost entirely automated, using questions and a picture of the patient. A doctor confirms the prescription, which is sent to a pharmacy for pick up.

While the automation powering these apps is not yet accurate enough for clinical diagnosis, their power lies in screening. Those facing financial difficulties may affordably check their symptoms or obtain standard prescriptions without signing up for an expensive health plan. The technology could sweep a large portion of patients away from emergency room doors, and perhaps even slow the spread of infectious diseases.