A Salt Lake City-based company known as TruClinic is using innovative ways to make doctors more accessible to patients through the use of telemedicine. According to the American Telemedicine Association, telemedicine uses forms of electronic communication to improve a patient’s medical status. TruClinic lowers medical costs by cutting out the middle man in scheduling doctor’s office visits, said Justin Kahn, co-founder and CEO.
“It is basically eliminating the unnecessary clinical office visit by allowing patients and providers to meet online as opposed to the patient always having to travel to the doctor’s office when a physical examination is not required,” Kahn said.
Given the need for a patient’s medical details to be protected in cyberspace, securing information is a top priority and Kahn says TruClinic takes more than the necessary steps to do so.
“TruClinic is uber-secure. Security is our paramount concern. We comply with all of the regulatory requirements as well as we have Department of Defense levels of security,” he said.
While originally developed more than 40 years ago to meet the needs of patients in remote areas, telemedicine has seen a recent increase due to the availability of smartphones and two-way video. Over half the hospitals in the United States now use some form of telemedicine.
