F108 What’s the value of telehealth consultations for doctors and patients? (Julian Flannery)
Summus Global enables people from across the world to connect to renowned medical experts. The company has a network of over 4,000 specialists. Their customers come from the US, China, Canada, Philippines, Spain, England, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Turkey, and Ireland.
In 2017, Mayo Clinic published a study about the second opinion. 21% out of almost 300 patients included in the study got a completely different diagnosis after a second opinion. In 12% of the cases, the diagnosis was confirmed. And in the remaining 67%, the diagnosis was further defined.
No matter how much you value you, doctor, a second opinion can be beneficial in some cases. Second opinions can be helpful not just about your diagnosis but also when deciding about your treatment options or when looking for an additional explanation about your condition.
Summus Global provides access to specialists and physicians from across the world. The company has a network of over 4,000 specialists and physicians from 48 hospitals and dozens of fields, from oncology to cardiology, psychology, and pediatrics.
Julian Flannery.
These doctors help people understand their options making good decisions inside healthcare, says the CEO Julian Flannery.
"If you have a pretty serious diagnosis, you probably should consult with more than one doctor. A patient or individual should have the right to engage with different doctors. And I think it is very widely accepted across the medical community that a second opinion is a consultation with another expert so that they can verify what they want to do. It's the best practice. At the end of the day, you know, practicing medicine is about healing the patient and getting them to a good outcome," says Flannery.
Getting a telehealth consultation does require some effort. This is not just a video call - the individual's medical record needs to be translated. Usually, it is good to have a specialized service for that. This is necessary for the consulting doctor to give an extensive opinion, which they do since Summus Global provides patients with 30-45 minutes long consultations.
In this episode, Julian Flannery talks about how the Summus Global platform works, how do customers differ based on the country of their residence and more.
Tune in for the full discussion:
Some questions addressed:
Let's first clarify the difference between telehealth and telemedicine, according to your definition?
Summus Global provides access to specialists and physicians from across the world. Do consumers express preferences regarding the specialist they want to reach? For example, why is a piece of advice from a doctor in Saudi Arabia relevant say for someone in Spain or US since culture and environment are important factors when delivering health advice? Healthcare is very local.
Summus has customers in the US, China, Canada, Philippines, Spain, England, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Turkey, and Ireland. How do customers differ? Can you name any regional specifics regarding the most sought after topics based on a specific population?
How do you differentiate on the market?
Can patients also seek second opinions? What power does that have apart from informing patients?
Given that you don't provide medical advice and are exempt in a way from liability doctors making telemedicine offer, how did the COVID-19 pandemic affect you? Did you also see a surge in demand? Did you extent or change your offer (especially in mental health, for example)?
You offer very long consultations - between 30 to 45 minutes. How do you manage the scheduling of appointments, given that doctors in your network work in prestigious clinical institutions?
Given that your experts can't write prescriptions, so a patient still needs to go to his medical experts to receive that, what is the incentive for employers to offer their employees the service?
What are the main concerns users have? Is it deciding between treatment plans they get offered by their healthcare professionals but don't know how to choose?
What do you see as the next step in the development of the delivery of virtual care?
How would you respond to a remark that while virtual care, especially at the moment, is good, virtual interaction is not the same as an in-person interaction? Some doctors do say that there they are losing something, because of this, that patients are losing something. At a certain point, it's different if you send your doctor an email or talk to him in person.