MA Families Discover Affordable Option in Personalized Healthcare

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The Covid-19 pandemic has turned the challenge of healthcare access into a crisis for many Massachusetts families. Local doctors' offices are cutting hours, and even shuttering, while patients defer ER and clinic visits - sometimes with devastating results. One Massachusetts company, however, is developing a novel solution that promises relief for local families.

Pandemic Changes Medical Decision-Making

medtigo Care was founded by a team of local emergency doctors to solve their own patients’ problems. "Working in the ER during the pandemic, we saw people suffer from not getting needed care – both for Covid and for other things," said Dr. Zayed Yasin, Medical Director of medtigo Care. By providing families on-call access to a dedicated clinical team and a high-tech at-home LifeKit, the medtigo Care delivers expert care at a price and convenience not previously available.

Many factors have combined to discourage people from seeking care, including fear of contagion; financial problems; and closed doctors' offices. Across the country, emergency department visits decreased by 42% in the early part of this year. Increasing numbers of patients are suffering heart attacks and strokes at home. Notes Mina G, a Natick mother of two, “When my child had diarrhea and vomiting during the pandemic, we did not know this could be Covid and brought him to the ER. If I’d had [medtigo Care’s] level of support, we could have managed this at home.”

Telemedicine and Concierge Medicine have emerged as strategies to improve access, each with major drawbacks. Concierge medical practices limit their patient lists to make their doctors more available, for a few hundred dollars a month. They are convenient and high-touch, but often low-tech and can be unaffordable. Commodity telemedicine is at the other end of the spectrum. It is easy to search online and see a doctor quickly – but many families don't trust a one-time video call with an unknown physician to solve real medical problems.

medtigoCare's Innovative Solutions

medtigoCare combines the best of both worlds: concierge quality and digitally delivery. Families pay a modest monthly fee for unlimited access to care for everyone in the household – if even one person in the family avoids an ER visit it pays for itself. Their clinicians are experienced emergency specialists trained at top Boston academic medical centers, so the care is both high quality and cost effective.

One of the most innovative and unique aspects of medtigoCare is the LifeKit. Explains Dr. Yasin, "In the hospital, we rely on technology to do things like measure vital signs and check urine for infection. The LifeKit is an in-home doctor's 'little black bag' for the modern era, relying on the same technology we use in the ER – but much more portable." The LifeKit includes equipment such as

• a pulse oximeter to measures oxygen levels in Covid-19 and other respiratory diseases;
• a digital otoscope to check for ear infections; and
• medical-grade glue to close cuts that would otherwise require stitches.

The medtigoCare team estimates that 75% of common medical issues can be managed remotely.

But while care is delivered via the latest technology, medtigo Care is still built on the human touch. At a video enrollment visit, a clinician takes each individual's medical history and personalizes a family LifeKit. "We want to get to know our families, and for them to know us," notes Dr. Yasin, "trust is essential to delivering good care, and you don't build that in a 10-minute Skype call."

medtigo Care is accepting families into a pilot program this fall, at a highly discounted rate of $99 for the LifeKit and enrollment, and $49/month per family for unlimited access by text and video to its doctors and PAs. For more information, see https://care.medtigo.com, email care@medtigo.com, or call (617) 915-2024. There are limited spots available, so interested families should act soon.

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