goevisit.com

[Parsad]

One of the companies Premier has funded is goevisit.com (https://goevisit.com).  We own about 28% of the company, which is the only 24/7 telemedicine company in Canada servicing all territories and provinces. 

 

If you are a Canadian resident with a provincial health care card, you can use this service from anywhere in North America for free.  Non-Canadian residents pay a $49.95 CDN fee for use.  Prescriptions can be sent to the pharmacy closest to you or of your choice, as well as you can use goevisit's online pharmacy which will deliver your prescription to your door within 24 hours by Fedex.

 

As my staff know, I caught a nasty cough and cold from my nephew and I’ve been out of the office on and off this week.  So I thought I would relay my experience using the service:

 

- Today is Canada Day…try getting an appointment at a clinic, your family doctor, Emergency or any online telemedicine competitor!

 

- Logged in at 9:17am, entered Care Card #, issue and choice of contact (phone, Skype or Facetime)…done by 9:21am and entered online waiting room

 

- Received call from physician/nurse practitioner at 9:40am…again on a weekend, stat holiday…really surprised by the speed!

 

- Discussed what was happening via Facetime…went through a number of questions including symptoms, problems, medications, history, etc.

 

- Because I have developed some wheezing/bronchitis and am traveling on Friday, was prescribed amoxicillin (antibiotic) and a renewed prescription for my inhaler

 

- Explained to me that the antibiotics should take effect within 48 hours…if on Monday/Tuesday I’m not progressing, suggested I then go see a Clinic/my physician/Emergency, so that it does not become pneumonia.

 

- Call ended by 9:50am with my prescriptions sent to the Shoppers Drug Mart closest to my house

 

- Received a call at my house at 10:51am telling me that my prescriptions are ready for pick-up at Shoppers!

 

I was thoroughly impressed!  I personally had qualms about how good the speed of service would be at this point until we scale up...and that was even when I had read about all of the good feedback we were getting.  But those were laid to rest...it was as good as I could imagine!  Yeah, there are some things that telemedicine cannot do…yet...but as technology and innovation improve, more services will add to the desire to use telemedicine, not unlike any other daily service provided online.

 

This saved me not only hours, but possibly days, since the clinics near my home would not be able to take me until at least Monday.  My only other alternative would have been Emergency at Surrey Memorial:

 

- how many hours wait would that have been?

 

- how much cost to the system?

 

- how inefficient?

 

- how many more people (in particular weakened immune systems) would I have exposed in Emergency and added to cost to the system?

 

- how uncomfortable when you are coughing up a lung and feel like crap!

 

The convenience factor is huge for parents with children, especially those that have to also work full-time...snowbirds or Canadians travelling...cost savings for employers (one of my staff had two clinic visits this week during work hours)...people living in rural areas, etc.

 

If you decide to use the service at some point, please provide feedback here and I'll be happy to pass it along to the CEO and operations team.  Some of you met Liz, Jim & Clay in Toronto this year, but they have a lot more stuff planned for goevisit.com.   

 

Have a great Canada Day to my Canadian boardmembers and an early Happy 4th of July to my American boardmembers!

 

Sanjeev

 

[beerbaron]

Hi Parsad, how do you monetize this service?

 

Beerbaron

 

[Parsad]

Hi Parsad, how do you monetize this service?

 

Beerbaron

 

- Patient visits are billed to their respective provincial medical system through a billing code and the patient's care card number...no different than a patient visiting their physician in Canada...fee goes to goevisit, while physician/nurse practitioner is paid an hourly or shift rate.

- Non-resident patients pay a $49.95 fee for use.

- goevisit receives revenues through every prescription filled through their Canada online pharmacy

- goevisit is signing up large insurance/administrative companies as the service reduces medical costs for these companies...they recently signed up essentially the majority of post-secondary institutions across Canada and a deal with the largest insurer of foreign exchange students...some of these agreements have annual fees paid to goevisit or add users to the system.

- they are working on a number of other new initiatives that I can't talk about...some revenue generation-related...and a couple that would be completely game-changing!

 

Cheers!

[bizaro86]

Parsed,  thanks for sharing! This sounds like a great service, and an interesting business as well.

 

I will create an account and anticipate it being especially useful if one of my kids gets sick on vacation.

 

A more business related question, is how do you feel this scales? It seems like a potentially high variable cost business, which reduces the scalability.

 

On the other hand, maybe their revenue is just the spread between health board RATE and what they pay, and I could see the Web infrastructure being mostly fixed costs.

 

I'd also be curious if they are capitalizing on the convenience factor for their employees by paying less. I would definitely take less pay if I could work part time hours and/or from home, and I suspect that is true for medical professionals as well.

 

 

[investmd]

Hi Parsad, how do you monetize this service?

 

Beerbaron

 

- Patient visits are billed to their respective provincial medical system through a billing code and the patient's care card number...no different than a patient visiting their physician in Canada...fee goes to goevisit, while physician/nurse practitioner is paid an hourly or shift rate.

- Non-resident patients pay a $49.95 fee for use.

- goevisit receives revenues through every prescription filled through their Canada online pharmacy

- goevisit is signing up large insurance/administrative companies as the service reduces medical costs for these companies...they recently signed up essentially the majority of post-secondary institutions across Canada and a deal with the largest insurer of foreign exchange students...some of these agreements have annual fees paid to goevisit or add users to the system.

- they are working on a number of other new initiatives that I can't talk about...some revenue generation-related...and a couple that would be completely game-changing!

 

Cheers!

 

This type of platform is part of the future of medicine. Benefits the patients (clients), reduces burden on healthcare by improving access and allowing early treatment before medical issues intensify. In the long run, some (not all) of the questions being dealt with on this telemedicine platform can be done via Artificial Intelligence and decrease the need for medical personnel.

 

So, it's a great idea. However, from an investment point of view, hard to see where the earnings come from unless you have AI. By the time, the company pays for hourly physician salary, nurse salary, some overhead and malpractice insurance (as errors could be more easily made when direct patient contact is not available), there is little left in terms of profit.

 

The following shows how much the province of Alberta would pay for a visit - prob $15-$30 - not much:

Telehealthassistanceservice ....................... 33.78V

 

Physician to patient secure videoconference ................ 15.88

 

In summary, this type of service should be supported by the government. However, unless very high volume, or use of artificial intelligence to defray cost, monetizing is difficult. Doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do

[Parsad]

 

A more business related question, is how do you feel this scales? It seems like a potentially high variable cost business, which reduces the scalability.

 

On the other hand, maybe their revenue is just the spread between health board RATE and what they pay, and I could see the Web infrastructure being mostly fixed costs.

 

I'd also be curious if they are capitalizing on the convenience factor for their employees by paying less. I would definitely take less pay if I could work part time hours and/or from home, and I suspect that is true for medical professionals as well.

 

Hi bizaro, that is correct!  They put the physicians/nurse practitioners on a fixed rate per hour or shift, which is significantly less than what the physicians are billing per hour in patient visits.  The fixed costs are the hourly/shift salaries and the expense of operating the call centre.  The idea is to break even or generate a slight profit on that as you scale up, but other revenue generation sources (pharmacy, medical records, insurance company fees, etc) pad the net margin.  Cheers!

[constructive]

I'm not sure the brand name is good. It isn't specific enough about health. Go and visit are too vague and E- in the middle of the name seems outdated and awkward.

 

onlinemed.com is available...

[Jurgis]

I'm not sure the brand name is good. It isn't specific enough about health. Go and visit are too vague and E- in the middle of the name seems outdated and awkward.

 

onlinemed.com is available...

 

I'd also suggest to grab onlinemed.com if it's still available.

 

If you guys don't get it in a week, I might grab it myself...  8) I'm a nice guy though, so you'all have the opportunity to get it first.  8)

[jm25]

You can buy onlinemed.com from its current owner for the low, low price of C$131,568 on godaddy

[Jurgis]

You can buy onlinemed.com from its current owner for the low, low price of C$131,568 on godaddy

 

So apparently it's not available.  :-\

[LC]

What is the market like for this business? Why don't other medical groups offer this?

 

If I'm a hospital or medical group why wouldn't I just set this up for myself...It could be used to reduce the volatility of work, especially during slow hours. Perhaps the real business is selling the software/setup to hospitals/clinics/medical groups and whatnot?

[Parsad]

What is the market like for this business? Why don't other medical groups offer this?

 

If I'm a hospital or medical group why wouldn't I just set this up for myself...It could be used to reduce the volatility of work, especially during slow hours. Perhaps the real business is selling the software/setup to hospitals/clinics/medical groups and whatnot?

 

Some companies do that already...license the software, etc.  There is some competition in North America and in Canada in terms of telemedicine...including some fairly significant acquisitions. 

 

No one in Canada is offering 24/7 access across all provinces and territories, or remote access as snowbirds, travellers other than goevisit.com.  The number of telemedicine visits is probably in the tens of thousands in Canada on an annual basis now.  That number seems to be growing around 90-110% annually depending on data sources.  No one in Canada is attempting to scale like goevisit.com on a national level.

 

Cheers! 

[ourkid8]

Sanjeev, what is the growth rate we are witnessing with goevisit.com?  Do  you have stats over the last 3 years?

 

What is the market like for this business? Why don't other medical groups offer this?

 

If I'm a hospital or medical group why wouldn't I just set this up for myself...It could be used to reduce the volatility of work, especially during slow hours. Perhaps the real business is selling the software/setup to hospitals/clinics/medical groups and whatnot?

 

Some companies do that already...license the software, etc.  There is some competition in North America and in Canada in terms of telemedicine...including some fairly significant acquisitions. 

 

No one in Canada is offering 24/7 access across all provinces and territories, or remote access as snowbirds, travellers other than goevisit.com.  The number of telemedicine visits is probably in the tens of thousands in Canada on an annual basis now.  That number seems to be growing around 90-110% annually depending on data sources.  No one in Canada is attempting to scale like goevisit.com on a national level.

 

Cheers!

[jm25]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/startups/new-services-allow-you-to-talk-to-a-doctor-from-the-comfort-of-your-living-room/article35783939/

[KCLarkin]

A couple of weeks ago, my family rented a cottage. On the day we arrived, my son came down with a fever and sore throat. My wife had recently had strep throat, so she assumed that was what my son had. It was the weekend, so all walk-in clinics were closed. Our only option was to go to an ER in a town 30 minutes away.

 

Since I had read Sanjeev's post, I decided to give goevisit a try. It saved us from spending most of the day at the ER. Instead, we enjoyed swimming and canoeing while we waited for the doctor to call. He then called into a prescription into a nearby pharmacy. Our vacation was rescued.

 

So, this service worked very well for us. But I also noticed some drawbacks:

- The name is not great. It doesn't tell you what the business is. And the vowel combination of "go" and "evisit" makes it difficult to pronounce, spell, and remember.

- Diagnosis is limited. The doctor tried to look into my son's throat to see if he had strep. This was difficult using FaceTime.

- When my wife was diagnosed with strep, they took a swab. This prevents un-necessary antibiotics. Goevisit couldn't take a swab from my son. Given the limits of Goeevist, I suspect it will increase unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.

- For most things, this is probably best as a screening service. Do I need to go to the ER or see a "real doctor"? This is great for patients (saving hours versus sitting in ER). But it would also result in double billing to OHIP.

- The number of "conditions" this service would be useful for is relatively limited. You can't get stitches over the phone.

- This isn't really a problem but the technology is really primitive. You install an app on your phone but all that is used for is to request a doctor. The doctor just phones you over FaceTime. Your case report is sent over email as a word attachment.

- I feel like this would be susceptible to insurance fraud.

- In Ontario, we have Telehealth Ontario. It serves a similar "screening" function. But they only provide advice. This wouldn't have worked for our case, since we needed a prescription.

- In Toronto, we have doctors who do house calls. For most cases, I think this is better than Goevist. You usually have to wait several hours for the doctor to arrive though.

- Seems like it relies on "provincial health insurance arbitrage".

 

Anyway. This is an interesting and valuable service.

[Parsad]

A couple of weeks ago, my family rented a cottage. On the day we arrived, my son came down with a fever and sore throat. My wife had recently had strep throat, so she assumed that was what my son had. It was the weekend, so all walk-in clinics were closed. Our only option was to go to an ER in a town 30 minutes away.

 

Since I had read Sanjeev's post, I decided to give goevisit a try. It saved us from spending most of the day at the ER. Instead, we enjoyed swimming and canoeing while we waited for the doctor to call. He then called into a prescription into a nearby pharmacy. Our vacation was rescued.

 

So, this service worked very well for us. But I also noticed some drawbacks:

- The name is not great. It doesn't tell you what the business is. And the vowel combination of "go" and "evisit" makes it difficult to pronounce, spell, and remember.

- Diagnosis is limited. The doctor tried to look into my son's throat to see if he had strep. This was difficult using FaceTime.

- When my wife was diagnosed with strep, they took a swab. This prevents un-necessary antibiotics. Goevisit couldn't take a swab from my son. Given the limits of Goeevist, I suspect it will increase unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.

- For most things, this is probably best as a screening service. Do I need to go to the ER or see a "real doctor"? This is great for patients (saving hours versus sitting in ER). But it would also result in double billing to OHIP.

- The number of "conditions" this service would be useful for is relatively limited. You can't get stitches over the phone.

- This isn't really a problem but the technology is really primitive. You install an app on your phone but all that is used for is to request a doctor. The doctor just phones you over FaceTime. Your case report is sent over email as a word attachment.

- I feel like this would be susceptible to insurance fraud.

- In Ontario, we have Telehealth Ontario. It serves a similar "screening" function. But they only provide advice. This wouldn't have worked for our case, since we needed a prescription.

- In Toronto, we have doctors who do house calls. For most cases, I think this is better than Goevist. You usually have to wait several hours for the doctor to arrive though.

- Seems like it relies on "provincial health insurance arbitrage".

 

Anyway. This is an interesting and valuable service.

 

Thanks KC!  I'll forward your comments to Jim & Liz. 

 

The main purpose for goevisit.com is as a screening service and to treat non-emergency ailments...like your case or mine.  It saves precious emergency room resources, reduces costs to the system and is far more convenient than clinics for the same treatment/service (non-emergency).  Also, like your case, rural area...accessibility is enormous!  And unlike other telemedicine services, goevisit.com works within the provincial/universal healthcare system, instead of charging resident users $49.95 or annual memberships.

 

As technology improves and the services offered increase, the value proposition and convenience of goevisit.com will win out.  Wait till we allow you to access your medical records remotely...it's coming and we'll be the first to offer it!  My physician retired 5 years ago, after looking after my family for 50 years...I have no clue where my medical records are now!  If you are travelling in Europe and get sick, you'll be able to pull up your entire medical history for the physicians looking after you over there in minutes.  We're also bringing out a multitude of smart devices that can be rented or purchased and utilized through your smart phone and goevisit.com.  Why use a holster monitor, when you can use wireless sensors linked to your smartphone to do the same thing.  Manufacturers of these devices want to offer their products free through goevisit.com...Fitbit data in the cloud is uselss...goevisit.com will collate information for users.  A ton of stuff being worked on...very exciting!  Cheers!

[Potato]

Lots of cool things happening in this space, esp. with connected devices to help manage chronic conditions. This is I think the only such service for acute cases that I've heard of that ties into the provincial health reimbursements -- I can't even imagine how you guys managed to make that work. Starting to make me nervous on my NWH.UN holdings if fewer cases will need in-person treatment...

 

For access to medical records, there's also MedChart, MyChart, and MyUHN, and I think a few other hospitals have their own patient portals in the works. From what I can see on the outside, OCHIS seems to be pushing to make these types of things easier for companies (and hospitals) to accomplish, and I imagine there are similar initiatives out west.