Worried about health? Ask a doctor on Twitter

In what is perhaps a first of its kind initiative, healthcare platform Practo has tied up with Twitter to enable users to get their healthcare queries answered in real time. Users can use the Twitter handle @AskPracto.

This is an extension of Practo's existing online healthcare consulting service, Practo Consult, which is available on its Android, iOS, and desktop applications.

Started in December, Practo Consult is a free consultation service that helps consumers connect with Practo's two lakh listed doctors and ask questions related to healthcare. All questions are responded to for free by verified doctors within 24 hours. Though one needs a Practo account to ask a question, through the Twitter partnership, a consumer can get an immediate response to his/her first query without an official account.
"This is a first of its kind solution in the world and we're building this right here in In dia. After the first question, if the user feels that he wants to ask a more specific question, directly to the doctor, he needs to create an account and ask the question on Practo Consult.

This is because we collect certain additional information that is relevant for the doctor to provide an accurate response," said Shashank ND, founder and CEO of Practo. The service has been launched in three countries -India, Philippines, and Singapore -out of the six it is present in.
Online doctor consultations are catching on. Gurgaon-based seeDoc, founded by two Silicon Valley serial entrepreneurs Jaideep Singh and Vivek Bansal, offers similar services. Its users can ask a free question from leading specialists and doctors, which the firm says gets answered within 48 hours, or opt for an immediate high quality, paid video consultation. seeDoc says it has over 300,000 users and is serving up to 500 video consultations daily in India.

Practo Consult, the company said, targets consumers who may or may not have a health issue but would not want to spend money in medical consultations. "... When a question is sent to us, our algorithm considers the speciality of the doctor and sends a notification to them. At one point, you might get an answer from 2-3 doctors which reduces the need for further consultation," said Shashank.

Practo Consult will remain free for now, but it may look at charging beyond a certain number of questions. Currently, Practo's revenues come from the cloud-based software that it provides to doctors, hospitals, and clinics, and from advertising on its doctor search platform.

Source: techgig.com