CVs, an American drugstore chain giant, is holding hands with three telemedicine companies

Source: health industry on August 26, 2015, CVS health, an American drugstore giant, announced that it would cooperate with three major telemedicine companies: American well, doctor on demand and teladoc to explore ways to connect telemedicine service providers, retail drugstores and retail clinic providers to improve medical services In this cooperation, CVS will recommend its customers to these telemedicine companies, and three telemedicine companies will also recommend CVS's appointment free clinic to their customers Andrew Sussman, executive vice president of CVS health, said CVS would soon announce in which states it would provide telemedicine services When using CVS health's websites, existing CVS customers can directly access the websites of these telemedicine companies and consult their doctors online Of course, in some cases, the diagnosis must be carried out face to face, such as throat bacteria examination and ear examination At this point, these telemedicine companies will recommend patients to CVS's minute clinic Practicing nurses in clinics can perform such simple tests and help patients communicate with doctors through remote devices This kind of telemedicine not only expands the business scope of CVs and three telemedicine companies, but also provides more convenient and cheap access for patients, which can be described as killing three birds with one stone Adam Jackson, co-founder and CEO of doctor on demand, calls this approach an "efficient two-way recommendation system." "The original intention of establishing doctor on demand is to provide patients with an instant access to medical treatment and recommend the best doctors in the country to them," he said The cooperation with CVs gives us the opportunity to serve millions of customers who believe in cvshare, which is not only beneficial to our business expansion, but also beneficial to the rapid growth of telemedicine " Roy Schoenberg, chairman of American well, said the collaboration with CVs was at a turning point in telemedicine technology, a recognition of the booming technology and an effective way to bring doctors into patients' homes "Slowly, people will realize that this kind of simple and convenient medical treatment will play a greater role in the future," he said Jason gorevic, teladoc's CEO, believes that the cooperation has brought teladoc into the market of "direct to consumer" and provided teladoc with a platform for direct contact with consumers "This is just the beginning, and we will have more opportunities to work with CVs to bring telemedicine to the market in the future," jeriveko said At the same time, this cooperation is also a further expansion of CVS's existing telemedicine system CVS has always hoped that it is not only a drug retailer, but also a place where customers can get more medical services CVS believes that people's demand for medical care will continue to rise in the future due to the expansion of coverage of Affordable Care Act, aging problems, chronic disease outbreaks and shortage of basic doctors This is also one of the reasons CVS entered telemedicine Not long ago, CVS just ended its telemedicine pilot project, the minute clinic The project ended in June with 12 minute clinics in California and Texas, during which 14000 clients were consulted online CVS interviewed only 1700 of them, 95% of whom said they were very satisfied with the service provided by the minute clinic, and one third of them said they preferred telemedicine to face-to-face treatment "Telemedicine is bound to be an important part of the medical system in the future, and we are just in the beginning, but we look forward to providing more, faster and cheaper access for patients in the future," Susman said CVS's cooperation with three telemedicine companies also proves that telemedicine has become more and more common Not only is it accepted by patients, but also more insurance companies and medical systems show great interest in it.