One final meeting we didnt get chance to write up yesterday was with 3G Doctor. If ever there was a company that does what it says on the tin, this is surely it. It was formed in November last year by a group of Irish clinicians schooled at University College Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, and uses 3G mobile technology to offer remote one-to-one video consultations to patients over the phone. It costs nothing to create and store your medical records on the companys secure WAP portal, then 35 for each consultation.
The man, or in many cases woman, at the other end of the phone advising the patient, is, in each case, a General Medical Council-registered consultant with full Medical Defence Union protection. In fact, Business Development Director David Doherty told us, many are female doctors who have taken maternity leave and never returned to work, who see this as the perfect way to work from home, which is not something most Doctors would imagine they could do. According to Doherty, the GMC estimates that there are around 4,000 qualified female doctors on extended maternity leave.
Doherty says the key to the service is the video call consultation.
If someone is talking to you on phone, you dont know what hes doing, says Doherty. He could be painting a boat for all you know. The fact he is looking you right in the eye brings you as close as you can get to actually meeting him.
In addition to the 3G Doctor application, the company offers bespoke advice to patients, depending on their condition. It can also offer relevant applications, such as a physical fitness application for someone it identifies as being into physical fitness. It has several more developments in the pipeline, including an RFID-equipped medication container. This syncs up with the phone to alert the owner if they have forgotten to take their 2 oclock tablet. It will also enables the user to touch in with an RFID-equipped handset to confirm that they have taken their medication.
The only flaw we could see in the 3G Doctor logic is that the more elderly patients whom, you would imagine, would benefit most from such a service, are probably the least likely to have a 3G, video-calling phone. Not because they cant afford one, but because they dont realise they could get one for not very much money, or that they could do something useful with it, like call the Video Doctor.
But Doherty insists that the company is working hard with handset makers, networks and other partners to get the message out. He points out too that older people are more affluent, accounting for 80% of wealth in western countries. He notes also that a mobile phone network dedicated to healthcare purposes is due to launch in the US in the second half of next year. The company wont reveal user numbers as yet, saying it has a big announcement to come with a handset maker or network and is keeping its powder dry for that.
Its certainly a fascinating concept. Just when you think youve seen everything on a mobile, you realise, in fact, that you aint seen nothin yet.