MyMD Selects Ingenio to Power New Phone-Based Medical Advice Service
Ingenio's Live!Advice Platform Enables Doctors and Individuals Seeking Medical Expertise to Easily Connect via Web-to-Phone Conversations
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 23, 2004Ingenio, Inc. today announced that the online medical service MyMD has chosen Ingenio's Live!Advice platform to enable Doctor On Demand, the MyMD service which will provide live medical advice and information over the phone. Set for an early July launch, Doctor On Demand (www.ingenio.com/mymd) will comprise a network of thousands of licensed physicians who can take customer calls, access medical records online in real time, and even write prescriptions over the telephone. The service, which currently has 350,000 subscribers, is accessible throughout the United States and Canada.
MyMD will offer Doctor On Demand to millions of customers through partnerships with hospitals, health care organizations and telephone service providers. People who are traveling and need a local doctor, or who simply want the convenience of being able to discuss symptoms, determine treatments and get prescriptions without waiting for an on-site appointment, will be able to immediately talk to a doctor licensed in their state, 24 hours a day. Every Doctor On Demand physician will have high-speed Internet access and will be able to instantly access patients' medical histories.
In our online consultations we cannot do the physical assessment necessary to support most medical decisions. We will provide medical information, assistance with finding care providers, and, in some situations, treatment. Any treatment needs to be followed up with your regular physician - if you do not have one, we will be happy to help you find one.
When MyMD CEO Michael Chalkley decided to launch Doctor On Demand, he knew Ingenio was the perfect complement to his own company. "We're medical communication experts, pure and simple," Chalkley said. "Ingenio's expertise in web-to-telephony connections and transactions lets us concentrate on doing what we do best: enabling our customers to get medical advice, when and where they need it."
The MyMD deal is the latest illustration of how Ingenio's Live!Advice directories are reinventing the professional-services consulting business for the Internet. Live! Advice directories are already powering numerous professional service areas, including relationship advice for Match.com and product support and technology advice for Microsoft. "Doctor On Demand is an exciting new service for MyMD and its customers. It's a perfect opportunity to leverage our Live!Advice directories platform and expertise into the medical advice arena," said Marc Barach, Ingenio's chief marketing officer.