SkyMD Premier Teledermatology Telehealth Platform

Author: SkyMD
Published: 10 Jul 2016

Contents: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Related Publications

Synopsis: SkyMD, Inc. debuts full-scale rollout of premier telehealth platform that helps doctors provide efficient and effective care to patients across the country.

Introduction

SkyMD - the telehealth platform that connects dermatologists to their patients - announced the full-scale rollout of its application on Wednesday. SkyMD has shown that its unique business model can be effective and efficient for both patients and doctors, meeting the AMA's recently released telehealth regulations.

Main Content

"Certain telehealth companies have presented themselves as 'anonymous informational services' rather than a 'health care service' in order to circumvent the legal requirements surrounding a physician-patient relationship," said Eric Price, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SkyMD. "But when a patient receives information from a physician online, they are more likely to trust the source and act upon that information regardless of the legal disclaimers surrounding it. Any platform connecting doctors and patients online should therefore adhere to a common standard of care. The SkyMD platform was designed by a team of board-certified dermatologists and tested within their own practices with this guiding principle in mind."

Since its soft launch in October 2015, SkyMD has seen tremendous growth in the application's usage and effectiveness.

• 50+ dermatologists actively using the platform
• Licensed providers in 25 states across the country
• Thousands of patients registered
• 40 percent month-over-month growth

This success is despite findings that some telehealth providers are falling short. For example, a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found several pitfalls with existing teledermatology platforms. The SkyMD platform has been designed to avoid these pitfalls and comply with the AMA guidelines on provider responsibility in telemedicine. SkyMD:

• Enables and encourages patients to select their preferred provider
• Connects patients only with certified healthcare providers licensed in the patient's state
• Collects all relevant patient information prior to evaluation
• Utilizes proprietary treatment templates and patient education for more comprehensive evaluations
• Enables patients to automatically share their treatment plan with their primary care physician
• Allows patient to follow up with their SkyMD dermatologist in-person if needed
• Helps find a local dermatologist if the SkyMD dermatologist is too far

The SkyMD platform was created alongside top dermatologists. As a result, doctors using the platform have been able to treat 90 percent of their SkyMD cases without the need for further in person evaluation and have reduced their treatment time by more than 75 percent. By giving doctors all the information, tools and resources they need to make an evaluation quickly and effectively, SkyMD enhances the patient experience, delivering high-quality, efficient care at a lower cost.

SkyMD is a telehealth platform designed for dermatology. Eric Price, former Head of Product at Fab and Harvard Business School MBA, developed the technology in collaboration with a team of board-certified dermatologists. SkyMD leverages adaptive, specialty-specific online interviews and treatment templates to reduce treatment time while delivering the same quality of care. Doctors and patients can access the web based platform from any smartphone, tablet or desktop computer. Patients can also access SkyMD via its native iOS and Android apps.