Significant Science

We are rarely given the privilege in this life of seeing presentations on companies that live up to the to the much over-used term “game changer.” But American Well is precisely that. It really could shake the American healthcare landscape. It takes direct patient care via the Internet out of the realm of fantasy and thrusts it into the here and now. We really will be able to sit down at a computer (or use some Internet-ready device) wherever we happen to be and talk to a doctor via video or similar fashion.

I am just going to quote from their site right here to give you an idea of what I am talking about:

“Welcome to Online Care from American Well! This new service makes it easy for you to talk to physicians, immediately, from home. You don’t need to call ahead or wait for a doctor – simply log on or call. Decide what type of doctor you want to talk to, then connect to an appropriate provider immediately. Choose from providers in a variety of specialties, or let the American Well system help you find the doctor that’s right for you.

Online Care from American Well is made available to consumers through participating health plans, on a state-by-state basis.
With American Well, you get:
• Immediate access to primary care physicians and a variety of specialists from home, securely, privately, and in real time
• Convenience of receiving care on your own terms, using the Web, live videoconferencing, or phone
• Choice of providers based on criteria that matter to you, such as specialty, language, gender, hospital affiliation or zip code
• Quality care from rated physicians who can provide consultations, recommend treatment and write prescriptions online if necessary
• Continuity of care with the ability to send detailed care reports to your primary care physician or other care coordinators”

I heard American Well’s Roy Schoenberg, MD, MPH its president and chief executive officer, speak at Health 2.0 2009

and heard him speak yesterday here at the 2009 Connected Health Symposium in Boston.

He really is an impressive person with a real vision and is creating something truly important; something not just innovative but revolutionary, transformative.

Basically, American Well with its service Online Care is rocketing the American health system into the world of the Jetsons and Star Trek. It is not available nationwide yet. But it is a comer.

Just imagine. I don’t feel well. I need to talk to a doctor. I guess I will stumble woozily over to my desktop computer or take up the laptop by my bedside and call up one from American Well. He or she can call up a variety of specialists if need be. I am starting to feel better.

And the matter of money?

Here is how American Well explains to providers the matter of payment, “American Well makes billing simple for you. At the end of a conversation, a claim is automatically submitted on your behalf to the patient’s health plan and the co-pay is collected directly from the patient’s credit card.”

Is that cool or what? Here is more from its site, “American Well has created an Online Care system that allows consumers to connect with physicians immediately, whenever they have a health need, from their homes or offices.”

Sweeeet.

This is all so simple and yet so brilliant. Think about it. How much actual physical interaction is truly involved in the average medical office visit these days? They might weigh you. You can do that at home. They might take your temperature. You can do that at home. They might take your blood pressure. You can do that at home. They might take your pulse. You can do that at home. And so forth.
Do you really need to go out in the rain or take time off from work or take your aging perhaps disabled parent to a doctor’s office if you could get the same level of care and advice from home?

It is very, very rare in healthcare for a new technology or service to benefit everyone involved. Online Care will do that. It will enable consumers to get solid advice immediately (and we are talking minutes here). It will enable physicians and other healthcare providers to concentrate on actually practicing medicine and helping relieve pain and suffering and allaying anxiety. It streamlines and expedites the payment process, thereby making healthcare plans happy. Win, win, win. This reminds me of the lead-in to the old TV show, The Six Million Dollar Man. Remember? “We have the technology…”

You probably are thinking, “Yeah, right.” Visit the site for yourself. This is the killer app of killer apps in healthcare. American Well won’t have any trouble lining up physicians. The system is slick to the max.

Here is more from the site:

“A conversation in American Well is a live, interactive consultation between a consumer and provider. This consultation can occur via two-way videoconferencing, telephone, or secure text chat. The scope of medical services offered during a consultation can range from providing general advice to making a diagnosis and providing care. The term “e-visit” is typically used to describe asynchronous (not live or interactive), secure messages that are sent between consumers and physicians they know from office visits. Our service offers consumers the ability for live interaction with a wide spectrum of providers, and is therefore different from e-visits.

How does American Well ensure physician availability at any time?
American Well uses an intricate supply management system to match physician availability and consumer demand. Physicians who make themselves available are aggregated into “pools” of their respective discipline, which in turn are tapped into by consumers’ “demand”. No single provider needs to be available at any point in time, as pools are constantly changing based on the discretionary availability of the physicians.”

What’s not to like here? There is nothing else like it on the healthcare landscape. Yes, Hello Health offers online healthcare but offers nowhere near this level of access for consumer to immediate care.

American Well will enable those with everything from the sniffles to worrying complications of chronic disease to get answers in real time. Just think what a boon Online Care will be to those with conditions such as multiple sclerosis and to those caregivers who are struggling to get hold down a job all the while making sure their elderly mother or father is in good health.

And what a marvelous thing Online Care will be to, say, a female physician who wants more time at home with her young children but who also wants to keep active in her profession for financial, intellectual and altruistic reasons.

The health economists (once they can get over the fact that American Well, is yes, that dreaded thing—a business) will love American Well. In what setting is health care most efficiently provided both from a labor/time motion standpoint and vis-à-vis money? The home. Brick and mortar healthcare institutions may not love the idea of Online Care yet—but they may embrace it eventually, given the pressures many of them are under to reduce hospitalization rates.

It may be that I am just swooning over American Well because Schoenberg is such a charismatic, cogent speaker. But I don’t think so—there is substance here. The timing is perfect in this climate of cost cutting in healthcare and in the coming age of the empowered patient for American Well. Check it out. It is the future.