Page II: A Sydney-based start-up is offering a way for doctors to track and bill their clients for consultations over the phone and by e-mail.
Rutland is a firm believer in establishing a rapport with patients prior to engaging them in TeleConsult consultations. -For diagnosis purposes you need to see a patient, but if you are discussing further investigations, therapies, referrals and so on it is useful to have a system in place that allows patients and doctors to interact securely and remotely when both agree that it is unnecessary to have a face to face consultation," he says.
-If doctors wanted to charge for phone consultations they would have to discuss money with the patient which I don't think is appropriate. A phone consultation typically costs between $15 and $20, so to send an invoice for that amount, once you've posted it and taken into account bank fees, is not an economical amount of money to collect," he says.
TeleConsult is looking into payment by other means than credit cad, but at the moment Jonathan says that even if a patient doesn't have a credit card themselves, a relative normally does. To make a call, the patient needs the doctors ID number, and whilst waiting to be connected a recorded message informs them of the charges or if the doctor is away on holiday or alternative contact numbers - anything the doctor wants the patient to know.
As well as saving time and generating additional revenue, another benefit of the system is the ability for doctors to document their online and phone consultations easily, which can't easily be done if the doctor is taking a call or checking email away from their consulting room.
A transcription system was developed with partner company OzeScribe, a company which offers, amongst other things, medical transcription services. -I can select to use the keypad as a dictaphone, for example I can press 4 for rewind, 3 for play, and I can dictate a brief note, whether it be to organise follow up care or refer the patient to a specialist," says Rutland. These notes appear on the TeleConsult Web site within 24 hours, and one hour if the doctor marks it as urgent. The Web site also allows doctors, and patients, to view statements from the last three months.
The service will be extended out to other medical professionals including clinical psychologists, dieticians and nurses, says Rutland. -To get advice from a dietician, do you really need to see them every time as long as you are honest about your weight?" he asks.
Kourosh Ghassemi, IDC's research director, SME, vertical markets and Infrastructure says he is sceptical about the concept overall, rather than the service itself.
-At state level the Government has introduced sophisticated web cam services to meet the medical needs of remote communities, but in the private sector there is nothing like this," says Ghassemi. -The service appears to be targeting city workers who do have access to GPs so I wonder why they would choose to get advice online," he adds.
Ghassemi believes it will be a big cultural shift for people, particularly the elderly who TeleConsult are also keen to target, to e-mail or call the doctor rather than visit in person. -It's very hard to ask questions over e-mail particularly, but if it was a web cam and instant messenger service it might be different," he says.
