MyPocketDoctor: What is telemedicine all about?

MyPocketDoctor is getting some attention, and the initial reports look promising. For less than the cost of a clinic consultation, you can speak to a doctor on the phone, or even via Skype if you’ve got a weird rash he needs to look at.

MyPocketDoctor: What is telemedicine all about?

There’s a great argument for telemedicine right there: you’ll never have to show a friend or family member a skin irritation in an awkward location again. The doctor can treat it and won’t tell your family. Your prescription is sent directly to MyPocketDoctor’s pharmacy partner (currently Mercury Drug).

The best of all, you didn’t have to take off work, travel to the clinic, wait in the waiting room, and have the awkward face to face chat before you show the doctor the painful bump on your butt.

A subscriber can log on to the MyPocketDoctor account or send an SMS to the hotline to access a team of nurses to whom he/she provides initial information. A physician then calls the subscriber back (typically within 15 minutes) assesses his symptoms and prescribes medication, orders laboratory tests, makes a referral, or prescribes another mode of treatment as the subscriber’s case requires.

It’s also a Godsend for snappy patients

When you REALLY want to be examined NOW because you need the pain to STOP, not in an hour, when you’ve hailed a taxi, driven to the clinic, and waited in the lobby for your turn. Public hospital? Double or triple the wait time. Patients are talking to their doctor within 15 minutes of calling MyPocketDoctor, in the comfort and privacy of their own homes, or conveniently during a break at work if necessary.

MyPocketDoctor is also there to field your panicky call when you don’t know what’s wrong with your body and need an expert opinion. Maybe you’re lactose intolerant, but you’ve never felt so sick after eating dairy that you actually vomited. This is the first time.

You get MyPocketDoctor on the phone and after asking some questions, your doctor determines it isn’t severe lactose intolerance: you managed to get food poisoning!

Got sick while traveling?

If any of our readers have ever been so forcefully ill that you threw up spontaneously without warning, multiple times, you know how hard it is to travel to see a doctor in that condition. You don’t want to throw up in the taxi, on the sidewalk, or in the clinic lobby.

MyPocketDoctor can save you a lot of embarrassment in that case. You can even use it if traveling overseas, and you can choose a doctor who speaks Bisaya or Tagalog: they offer both.

MyPocketDoctor normally sells consultation scratch cards for ₱450, but they’ve partnered with M. Lhuillier to provide unlimited doctor consultations for an annual fee of ₱900 for one person, or ₱1995 for one adult and two dependents. Talk to a doctor as often as you like.

That sounds fantastic, but it leads to a lot of questions

In the course of an examination, a doctor might examine your eardrum or shine a light on your tonsils. How can that be done over the phone? What about taking your pulse and blood pressure, or your temperature? How can a doctor listen to your breathing over the phone without a stethoscope? What happens if the doctor suspects a diagnosis that requires him/her to search for a lump, like swollen glands or lymph nodes, or–God forbid–cancer? How can that be done?

We contacted MyPocketDoctor and we may have a lot of questions, but they referred us to a MyPocketDoctor specialist who has a lot of answers. They assured us there are solutions to all these issues.

MyPocketDoctor and M. Lhuillier partnership

The partnership with M. Lhuillier expands the reach of MyPocketDoctor, making the service available to more Filipinos all over the world, particularly to overseas Filipino workers and their families and those in locations where doctors are not always present. Subscribers may choose a doctor fluent in either Bisaya or Tagalog, as they prefer.

MyPocketDoctor subscriptions may be paid over the counter at select M. Lhuillier branches. Patients may also purchase one-time-use cards at M. Lhuillier branches.

Download your MyPocketDoctor app today available to both Apple iOS or Android device. You can also check their website www.mypocketdoctor.com for more details.

About MyPocketDoctor

Mediaxes Inc.’s MyPocketDoctor is the first telemedicine app in the Philippines. The brainchild of Mediaxes A/S, a Filipino/Philippines telemedicine company established since 2006. Behind the company are a number of businessmen and doctors in Europe and in the Philippines. MyPocketDoctor aims to provide medical consultations in the easiest, most convenient way possible.