Firm pushes online medicine to new level

An Internet startup claims it is the first company to diagnose and treat common conditions, sight unseen.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. April 15, 2002.

The concept of doctors diagnosing and treating people online -- people they've never seen -- is trying to go legit.

Well aware of the reputation of online treatments as fronts for prescribing so-called lifestyle drugs, and aware of organized medicine's distaste for the concept, Indianapolis-based MyDoc.com is opening up for business and hoping for acceptance from patients, physicians and businesses, which are the focus of an advertising campaign that encourages MyDoc.com as an employee benefit.

The Internet startup, owned by Roche Diagnostics of Indianapolis, targets busy professionals and their family members who have acute but minor conditions and who don't want to miss work or take the time for an office visit because they have had the problem before and think they recognize their symptoms, said Jane Pickett, MyDoc.com's vice president of sales and marketing.

Using the MyDoc.com Web site (http://www.mydoc.com), consumers can get a diagnosis and treatment recommendation within 15 to 20 minutes instead of the three to four hours an office visit typically involves, she said.

The 24-hour service costs $39.95 for one visit. A one-year subscription is $15 a month and covers six online consultations (which figures out to $30 each); additional consultations are $19.95 each.

MyDoc.com hires only board-certified primary care physicians, paying them between $45 and $65 per hour on average, Pickett said. So far, the service has rolled out only in Indiana and Illinois, but more states will be added, she said. A doctor can consult with a patient only if he or she is from the same state. [...]