Virtual Medical House Calls


I wonder how many of my readers know about HealthTap? HealthTap is an online service that allows you to type out health questions to legitimate doctors. It launched in 2010 by Ron Gutman, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. I’m pretty amazed that he was able to do this considering several friends of mine tried to do the same thing a few years earlier. Most doctors didn’t want to get involved because of legal ramifications,

Apparently, Gutman found a way around the legal obstacles The company has so far serviced over 100 million people. This area of medicine is expected to grow to $1.9 billion in 2018, from the $240 million in 2013.

HealthTap just announced HealthTap Prime, a service that gives subscribers unlimited access to live video chats with well-qualified doctors for $99 a month. Each additional family member is $10. From now on, you can send photos and documents to the doctors during your call. They can also access your health records.

Don’t worry that your medical records will now become an open book.The entire platform is secure and encrypted. Even HealthTap’s engineers can’t even see it.

If anyone has used the service, please report back. We may all want to give it a try. The two videos above will give you a better idea about how HealthTap works.

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You Are Not Alone


There’s a new campaign on Indigogo, the Crowdfunding site, that I wanted to tell you about. You may want to fund it. Twenty thousand dollars has already been raised of the $37,274 needed to bring The Silent Beacon to market.There are 45 days left. So far 378 funders have donated.

The Silent Beacon is a Bluetooth wearable device that notifies loved ones and dear friends of your emergency situation. The messages are sent by alerts via text, email, and push notifications with your GPS location. The person who hits the alert can also speak to the people selected to receive the message.

There are other products like this one on the market. I urge you to compare. The reason why I picked this one for today is because The Silent Beacon has a sizable marketing campaign on Facebook. It caught my attention many times. I also liked the fact that the companion app is easy to use and let’s you update frequently. As we get older, services like this will allow us to extend our independence.

Click here to take a look at the Indiegogo fundraiser. The site will give you more details about the product, the competition, and how much it will cost you to own it and the monthly fee. There are different programs.

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