As COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, spreads in North Texas, causing disruption to daily life and uncertainty, many people are looking to remain healthy and prevent spreading the virus to family and neighbors. Now, another local startup is joining in to slow the spread by offering a way for people to be tested for the virus from their own living room or kitchen table.
McKinney-based telehealth cloud platform MyTelemedicine, which works to remotely connect patients to their health care providers, is launching a COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool to help keep people informed and help self-diagnose before seeking medical attention during a time when the industry is seeing strains on capacity, staff and supplies.
The tool, available on the company’s website and app, is offered to both MyTelemedicine members and nonmembers.
“This is really creating the paradigm shift that the industry needed, in such a horrible way. This is a perfect tool for this situation,” MyTelemedicine founder and CEO Rey Colón told the Dallas Business Journal. “With a potential lockdown that we’re looking at in the near future, the more consumers we can assist, the better we can prevent the spread of the disease and protect the health of the population as a whole.”
Users can sign on and after giving some anonymous information about their age and gender, are asked about symptoms, places of travel and any contacts and other factors that could put them at an increased risk of being affected by the coronavirus. People who show signs of the virus are directed to start a virtual physician consultation through the MyTelemedicine video platform.
According to the World Health Organization, while symptoms may take up to 14 days to show in an infected person, they include fever, dry cough and tiredness. However, some patients have reported aches, nasal congestion and sore throat, among other things. Globally, there are more than 372,000 cases and have been more than 16,000 deaths.
“CDC is aggressively responding to the global outbreak of COVID-19 and preparing for the potential of community spread in the United States,” the disease control and prevention organization wrote in its daily COVID-19 update on Monday.
The MyTelemedicine self-assessment tool, besides cutting down on visits to hospitals, helps to slow the spread of the virus because many of the existing drive-thru testing sites require a doctor’s referral. It also provides visitors with information related to the virus and tips on how to protect yourself and your community.
As the community adjusts, local startups in the health care space have been launching products or offering fee services during this time, including McKinney-based social impact organization VOMO and Plano-based connected care platform VitalTech. In addition, numerous local organizations like Sparkyard and Health Wildcatters are looking to organize the local innovation community to help each other out.
Telemedicine companies are also likely to see a boost in business, as the pandemic spreads further in the country and as a recently announced Trump Administration plan expands telehealth coverage to people on Medicare. According to the company’s website, it is hiring for positions in member care coordination, account management, software engineering and business development.
“We anticipate a humungous spike in usage of our service, and we’re prepared for it,” Colón told the DBJ. “Our goal is to assist the community and grow ourselves. In a time like this, we feel that we’re in a good position to add more employees to service more patients.”
MyTelemedicine plans to continue to help out during this time, the Dallas Business Journal reports. The paper cites MyTelemedicine CTO Jesse Roach, stating the company will roll out new features to the self-assessment tool in the coming days. MyTelemedicine is also working to partner with a lab developing COVID-19 home testing kits to have them sent to MyTelemedicine customers.