Forgeddabout ObamaCare.
New York doctors are on the cutting edge of the latest mobile healthcare technology. And it makes medicine more affordable and accessible, professionals say.
Such high-tech advances as “smart pills,” remote diagnostics, and robotics are becoming more common.
And now doctors in New York are pioneers in a new app called PingMD, with which patients and doctors can interact via smartphone. Its creators say the app eliminates much of the time-consuming hassle between doctors and their patients — especially those frustrating games of telephone tag.
“It’s literally so fast [that] I can … just look down on my iPhone and see a message from my patient and then respond,” Dr. Dyan Hes of Gramercy Pediatrics in New York told The Post.
Hes gets about five PingMD messages daily from her patients. (She reminds patients to pick up the phone for emergencies.)
A text-secure app, PingMD is the brainchild of New York City medical couple Dr. Gopal Chopra, a former neurosurgeon, and his pediatrician wife, Dr. Manju Chopra.
The app (which can be downloaded from the iTunes store) has several thousand users, according to Gopal, who is CEO of the downtown-based PingMD.
The app guides patients through their issues with a series of basic questions. The patient can add photos and videos for additional information before the doctor responds or makes referrals.
The app is free to patients, and the no-frills version is free to doctors, as well. “People will pay for added value,” Gopal Chopra said. “And we have a variety of integration and network solutions that we charge the provider for, depending on level of integration and network.”
Mobile healthcare technologies like PingMD are projected to become a $26 billion industry by 2017.
Some analysts say apps like PingMD could eventually generate valuable savings at a time of strained industry budgets.
“It is hard to estimate savings,” Gopal admitted. “But even a 5 percent improvement in one task, with better team coordination and clear best-practice guidelines, can save any one hospital $1 million to $10 million.”