Doxy.me Delivers Real-time Health Care to Patients at Distance
The constant development of technology has impacted our lives in incredible ways, and it has also transformed the way we manage and take care of our health.
In the age of hyperconnectivity, information has become more accessible than ever. People are now closer to important medical resources and they can easily find answers to their dilemmas online. The gap between medical experts and people seeking healthcare has narrowed down thanks to the Internet, or more precisely – telemedicine. New methods of self-care are now possible and this has democratized medicine to a certain degree.
Driven by the honest commitment towards increasing access to quality healthcare, Doxy.me was founded in 2013. Today, 500,000 health care providers from 136 countries use Doxy.me.
Telemedicine in a Time of Global Pandemic
One cannot emphasise enough the importance of telemedicine in a time of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Telemedicine uses telecommunications technology to provide healthcare to patients at a distance. Video and audio calls, as well as text messaging via desktop computers and mobile devices, are the recommended means of communication between medical professionals and patients for the time being.
Technology has enabled remote patient monitoring and in times like these, this is important not only because of convenience but also a necessity. With all the current social distancing measures in force and the governments and health care across the world appealing to their citizens to postpone their in-person visits to the doctor’s until further notice, telemedicine is the right solution for standard clinical care, counselling or therapy, or any type of medical training and support.
Doxy.me Addresses Numerous Problems in Healthcare
Although healthcare should be a right and not a privilege, the world often shows us a different picture. Medical costs can be incredibly high. Patients often unnecessarily have to pay a visit to expensive facilities or have to take additional tests. While people know how precious health is, so they just do as they are told.
Another problem is the limited access to doctors, even without the current crisis and the burdened health care systems. Due to their busy schedules and an obvious shortage of staff, wait times can be incredibly long. The 2017 Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times has shown it now takes an average of 24 days to schedule a new patient physician appointment in bigger cities in the U.S., which is alarming. Due to other possible flaws in the health system, those that need immediate care might not receive it timely.
So, how does Doxy.me contribute to solving these problems?
Doxy.me is a telemedicine solution that’s simple to use and most importantly – completely free to use. It was founded by Brandon Welch, MS, PhD is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Director of the Telehealth Research and Innovation Program at the Medical University of South Carolina.
The idea for actually creating Doxy.me came to Welch when he was completing his PhD in Biomedical Informatics. As a part of his assignment, Welch had to find a simple telemedicine solution for a clinical research study. To his surprise, there wasn’t a single free solution out there.
The team has clearly defined their mission to make telemedicine accessible to everyone as they see it as a valuable complement to traditional medical care, not its replacement. It enables healthcare professionals to provide care within the standard clinical workflow (e.g. patient check-in, waiting rooms), so that the patients experience a natural visit.
How Doxy.me Works
Doxy.me offers free and secure video calls for medical professionals. To join the call, patients do not need to make an account nor to download any type of software. All they need to do is enter their clinician’s personalized URL web address to check into their physicians’ virtual waiting room.
Doxy.me is completely secure and compliant with HIPAA, GDPR, PHIPA/PIPEDA, and HITECH requirements. While the BAA is included with the signup. This means all patient data is safely protected (with 128-bit encryption), but never stored by Doxy.me. Patients remain anonymous to Doxy.me and no PHI or other type of data gets recorded. When the call ends, all of the data is permanently destroyed.
Doxy.me protects the doctor-patient confidentiality and strengthens the relationship between healthcare providers and those who need support. It is instantly accessible from everywhere – your desktop, tablet, or smartphone, which is an additional convenience.
For Patients, Providers, and Clinics
Doxy.me is a telemedicine solution which features have patients, healthcare providers, and clinics in mind. Here is a number of useful features:
- It is simple and convenient to use, right from your browser (no download or account needed)
- It is private and secure
- Video calls are available, as well as live chat
- Patients can easily check-in and let their physicians know they’re online
- Patient queue allows doctors to organize their calls effectively
- Virtual waiting rooms can be personalized with text, pictures, and videos so to bring a more pleasant experience to patients
- Mobile apps are available for even simpler use
In addition, Doxy.me highlights the importance of listening to feedback from its users and making improvements. There is a community forum where users can discuss different elements. This is the space where the team shares updates on troubleshooting or any possible glitches.
Speaking of community, Doxy.me has over 20,000 followers across popular social networks with Facebook leading the count with over 16,000 people.
Branded Appearance for Organizations
Small clinics, hospitals, health systems, large enterprises, and professional organizations also have the option of a branded solution on the platform.
If an organization wants to present and maintain their recognizable brand image, Doxy.me allows account customization. Together with a personalized subdomain (e.g. https://clinic-name.doxy.me) and a dedicated landing page, organizations have the opportunity to appear as though they were using their own telemedicine solution.
Finally, the organization subscription also comes with Priority Customer Support and availability of analytics which enables telemedicine providers to monitor usage and trends and, therefore, gain valuable insight that can drive further improvement in their telehealthcare.
Why is Doxy.me Free?
At Doxy.me, the team strongly feels cost should not be a barrier to telemedicine. But of course, such a humane mission does not pay the bills. The fact is, Doxy.me does offer premium features for individual healthcare professionals ($35 per month) and clinics ($50 per month), but has a free forever version for both care receivers and caregivers.
As the founder Brandon Welch explained:
We subsidize the free version with the revenue we generate from the professional and clinic versions. So credit really goes to the users who upgrade, because they make it possible for others to use Doxy.me for free.
And what’s in the name? Welch explained this as well:
Doxy.me phonetically pronounced sounds like “doc see me”. Also, Doxy is a Greek root suffix meaning “knowledge, truth, or wisdom” (eg ortha-doxy).
Pretty clever! We at Domain.me love to see how creative our users are at coming up with catchy domain hacks. In addition, it’s always an honor to serve as an online home to companies and organizations that have a noble goal, such as making healthcare accessible.
And what about you? Do you have an extraordinary idea that could help people? Come up with a savvy domain name that’s impossible to forget, use .ME to share your idea with the world!
