Sat. May 18th, 2024

I recently saw this in my email from an online journal:

Teladoc telehealth services roll out on Amazon’s Alexa

Patients will be able to say, “Alexa, I want to talk to a doctor,” to connect with Teladoc Health’s call center. It’s the latest example of Amazon adding health services to its voice assistant.

Wow. Are our training and expertise just marketing gimmicks now? Are we that much of a commodity that you can ask, on a whim, for a doctor on Alexa?

Direct Primary Care is the most comprehensive and accessible care that you can get right now. We answer texts, emails, and phone calls from our patients almost immediately. This is the gold standard. That being said, none of us want to wait for a bell that is rung by a patient. And isn’t that the same as “Alexa, I want to talk to a doctor?”

Users will then get a call back on their Echo devices from a Teladoc doctor for virtual visits related to non-emergency health needs, including symptoms of a cold, flu, allergies or COVID-19.   

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/teladoc-partner-amazon-alexa-enabled-virtual-visits

Really? A cold? Allergies?

This is not what ANY of us went into primary care for. So who are the docs answering Alexa’s call? Are they docs? Are they just handing out inappropriate amounts of antibiotics and giving crappy care?

I think the better question may be why any doctor is doing this job with Teladoc versus doing Direct Primary Care and being the doctor you always thought you would be.

63420cookie-checkThe Excitement About Crappy Care
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By Douglas Farrago, MD

Douglas Farrago MD is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. He is the inventor of a product called the Knee Saver which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He is also the inventor of the CryoHelmet used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers. From 2001 – 2011, Dr. Farrago was the editor and creator of the Placebo Journal which ran for 10 full years. Described as the Mad Magazine for doctors, he and the Placebo Journal were featured in the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the AP, and the NY Times. Douglas Farrago, MD received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Education degree in the area of Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990, and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. In his final year, he was elected Chief Resident by his peers. Dr. Farrago has practiced family medicine for twenty-three years, first in Auburn, Maine and now in Forest, Virginia. He founded Forest Direct Primary Care in 2014, which quickly filled in 18 months. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago’s has written three books on direct primary care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice, The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal and Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) are all best sellers in this genre. He is a leading expert in direct primary care model and lectures medical students, residents, and doctors on how to start their own DPC practice. He retired from clinical medicine in October, 2020.

2 thoughts on “The Excitement About Crappy Care”
  1. I see 2 teladoc patients a day to supplement my DPC income as we go through our churn and burn. It’s an easy platform to work with and they are OK with me being opted out. I appreciate their existence.

    1. Yup, this is why I put this post on the opinion channel. Though I totally understand using them to supplement your income, my issue is that they pretend this is complete primary care and it is not. That was my point.

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