Trendy Startups Are Raring To Ride Telemedicine Wave, But Reality Putting Damper On Enthusiasm
Murky state regulations, patients desperate for medication who deceive doctors about their symptoms, and state-level infectious disease agencies and public health departments that have made clear they don’t accept certain information by email are just some of the problems these new startups face.
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Can Telemedicine Startup Lemonaid Be The Warby Parker Of Health Care?
The first thing you see when you enter Lemonaid Health’s offices is a dazzling bright yellow accent wall. Doctors work at desks clustered together in an open-plan office, ducking into smaller offices to conduct video visits with patients. The engineering, design, and data science teams sit just steps away. Hanging from a standing coat rack is a king’s crown, like the kind found in a child’s dress-up drawer, that employees wear proudly on their work anniversary. (Robbins, 4/26)
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The Most — And Least — Friendly States For Telemedicine Startups
In 2016, executives at the buzzy telemedicine startup Nurx spoke openly about their ambitions. By the following year, the company’s online services for birth control and the HIV prevention pill would be available in all 50 states. That never happened. Today, Nurx operates in just 17 states and Washington D.C. Nurx is part of a new wave of businesses that have attracted lots of excitement and investment for an idea that seems intuitive: Allowing patients to use online forms and chat messages to quickly get prescription drugs to treat simple conditions like urinary tract infections, erectile dysfunction, and hair loss. (Robbins, 4/26)
