A new smartphone app that allows patients to start video chats with their doctors to get prescriptions is making waves in Canada, but at the same time is causing friction with the country’s single-payer health system.
Akira is a telemedicine app, developed by a start-up of the same, which charges users $9.99 a month to use. Through Akira, users can speak to their doctors in real time through video, submit their health histories, and even receive a prescription from their medical providers—all without having to actually be inside a hospital. Moreover, Akira users do not need to present their health card before they can be attended to.
While apps like Akira have long been in use in other countries, like the U.S., they are still a relatively new concept in Canada. The bigger problem is that telemedicine is still not widely recognised in some provinces such as Ontario, where the provincial health insurance program typically does not cover for such things.
Since Ontario’s insurance program is not covering for the use of telemedicine apps, the developers are free to charge their users for the apps.
Though it costs to use Akira, many Canadians are more than willing to pay for a service that would allow them to see their doctors from anywhere. A 2014 study published by HealthcarePapers revealed that almost 80% of Canadians would like to be seen by their medical providers online.
Akira CEO Dustin Walper told
Metro News that the company has plans to expand to the rest of the country, but it could take a while. Walper explained that the medical services the app covers varies from province to province, so it is necessary to adjust accordingly.
Not everyone seems convinced of telemedicine’s potential.
“The electronic health industry is very heterogeneous, including many small start-up firms that have to generate a lot of “buzz” for investors,” L’Université de Montreal public health innovation professor Pascale Lehoux told
Metro News. “These firms have to chase the most profitable business model (e.g., clients with low health risks).”
Lehoux believes that private, digital health services cannot help with Canada’s overburdened health system.
“From a public health perspective, such firms are unlikely to respond to pressing needs,” she said. “They respond to the needs/anxieties of [possibly wealthy] clients and work with physicians who are highly sensitive to financial incentives. What kind of health outcomes shall one expect from that supply/demand mix?”
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