Web firm hopes female focus draws doctors, patients

GoToMyDoc, one of the last Internet health companies to get major funding before investment interest crashed, is initially targeting ob-gyns and pediatricians.

By Bob Cook, amednews staff. Sept. 25, 2000.

As other Internet health companies take on water, GoToMyDoc.com wants to lead the shout of "women and children first."

Actually, that shout refers to the audience that the Avon, Conn.-based company believes can allow it to grow while other online health companies are gasping for air.

GoToMyDoc, with $25 million in its pocket from major Silicon Valley venture capital firms, is looking exclusively to ob-gyns and pediatricians in its bid to link physicians and patients on the Web. The key statistic for the company: 59% of women are mothers.

The company, which grew out of online services offered by two physician practice management companies, so far has signed up about 1,000 doctors since its launch in March. That was about a month before publicly traded online health companies started seeing their stock prices crash harder than an overloaded disk drive.

The doctors pay, on average, an annual fee of about $500 per practice to get their own Web page. Patients would reach ob-gyns' pages by registering at the Web site (http://www.gotomydoc.com/). Pediatricians have a separate Web site (http://www.mykidsdoctor.com/) to develop their own home pages, which would then have unique Web addresses. The disparity comes from the two sites having been separate corporate entities until March.

Compared with other sites such as WebMD, the GoToMyDoc pages are, to put it mildly, minimalist. There's no e-mail or chat set up yet, nor any place to store medical records. The medical information is updated only once a month.

CEO Skip Creasey says there are plans to expand the offerings on GoToMyDoc.com, and perhaps even eventually market to family physicians. On the other hand, there are doctors who find the company's low-key offerings much to their liking.

"The other sites just seemed large," said Barbara Toppin, MD, one of a two-member ob-gyn practice in Woodbury, Minn., near St. Paul. "There's so much information. Maybe it was just the graphics."

Plus, Dr. Toppin said she's not ready to sign up yet for any site that touts e-mail or medical records transfer over the Internet because she's too concerned about security breaches.

"We're afraid to do anything over the Internet that might disclose any personal information. Privacy is a big issue for us," Dr. Toppin said.

It is doctors' qualms about health online -- whether it's privacy or just that health plans don't pay for Internet consultations -- and their reputation for stinginess that has some analysts questioning whether a company like GoToMyDoc.com can succeed.

Creasey is confident his company can. At the least, he says, doctors aren't asking lots of questions about whether GoToMyDoc.com can stay in business.

Armed with a self-sponsored survey showing that 77% of women would pay for health services on the Web, GoToMyDoc plans to introduce some subscription services. It also plans to do some online commerce; right now, the company has links to major e-retailers.

"We're confident in our ability to stay in existence," Creasey said.

In fact, Creasey said Wall Street's disfavor of Internet health companies could work to GoToMyDoc.com's advantage. Instead of having to expand quickly to satisfy investors, it can slowly build relationships with doctors and patients and introduce services when they're ready.

GoToMyDoc is actively selling its services in areas where its predecessor PPMs -- Women's Health USA and Kelson Pediatric Partners -- have doctors: Atlanta/Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Florida, New York, central Ohio and Washington/northern Virginia.

The PPMs themselves are still in existence, and they are investors in GoToMyDoc.com.