Mhealth tools can help patients to locate the best doctors

mhealth mobile health

Locating the right physician or specialist can be challenging, but improve search tools are available on smartphones.

A new mhealth service has now been launched that is designed to help patients to be able to more quickly and easily search for the right doctors for their unique needs, expectations, conditions and locations.

This is meant to help patients to overcome one of the largest struggles in obtaining proper health care.

The problem of locating the right doctor is hard enough for the average person, but patients who have complex or rare medical conditions struggle even more – particularly if they don’t happen to reside within one of the largest cities in the country. The doctors may be out there, it’s just not easy to find those specialists without the right tools. The new mhealth service is meant specifically to help those patients find the health care provider that they need, to improve the chances that an appropriate diagnosis will be made, and that proper treatment can be pursued.

The mhealth option also allows appointments to be made, and it could even mean that a remote checkup could be possible.

mhealthThe service, itself, is called the Virtual Clinic, which is available through the “ehealth” company called Grand Rounds. The version of the service that is available via laptops and desktop computers has been available for about two years, but it has now been rolled out for mobile device users, as well. According to its CEO and co-founder, Owen Tripp, it provides “access to healthcare experts who might be geographically unavailable to the average patient.”

The way that Grand Rounds works is that it collects the necessary patient data and organizes it in the cloud. From there, it is submitted to a specialist network, so that a doctor is able to log onto the system and review that data. He or she can create a response that can be sent back to the patient – no matter where he or she may be – within a period of three days or less.

Expanding on that service, Grand Rounds has also added an additional feature to its online and mhealth offerings, which allows for Office Visits to be arranged. Through this service, patients are able to search for and spot the best specialists and doctors in the country for the treatment of their own condition, and who are located in the same geographical region. An appointment can then be arranged. Office visits cost $200 each and are being marketed to employers that are self-insured.

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