Medeo and Equinoxe Create World’s First Online Medical Clinic

Medeo can rest easy for a spell; the trail to reliable online healthcare has officially been blazed.

It may have even been paved, peppered, lined with donated memorial benches and draped in neon.

Medeo and Equinoxe LifeCare are now operating an online medical clinic in British Columbia—the first of its kind anywhere on Earth, let alone in Canada. Since the first online video visit took place in January of 2013, 17,000 private video visits have taken place in British Columbia via Medeo’s technology. It was only a matter of time until a clinic formally instated itself with the infrastructure.

“Equinoxe leverages today’s technology and meets the IHI’s Triple Aim objectives, ensuring responsible contributions to the health of Canadians and to the healthcare system,” said Daniel Martz, CEO of Equinoxe LifeCare. “Operating the Virtual Clinic in British Columbia expands our ability to deliver care remotely while increasing care continuity and improving the experience for patients and physicians alike.”

This technology isn’t just for residents of the hinterlands. The hours of the online clinic are generous, running from 8am to 9pm on weekdays and 9am to 3pm on Saturdays. Data’s stored in the same facilities that the government uses, and prescriptions can be renewed online.

According to a PwC report released in 2013 called “Making Care Mobile: Shifting perspectives on the virtualization of health care,” Canadians are drawn to virtual health options in order to address issues like more convenient access to a doctor, greater control over one’s health information and the ability to better manage chronic health conditions. British Columbia has made its support of the telehealth movement plain, providing innovative support in direct-to-patient telehealth reimbursement.

he policy work of British Columbia’s Ministry of Health and Doctors of BC has been pivotal in influencing telehealth options amongst its physicians and other Canadian provinces. BC has set a lot of health-conscious trends, and this just happens to be more digital than yoga pants or 100 mile diets.

Michael Dingle, the CEO of Medeo, is understandably (if understatedly) thrilled.

“We are proud that Equinoxe has chosen Medeo’s technology to power its medical visits online in British Columbia,” he says. “Medeo was started in BC, enabled by the innovative telemedicine efforts of the BC Ministry of Health that places BC amongst the most progressive eHealth jurisdictions globally. The medical leadership in BC is very supportive of innovation designed to make meaningful improvements in the delivery of care.”

QHR Corporation acquired Vancouver-based Medeo this week for $2.2 million in cash plush shares.

“The acquisition of Medeo helps advance QHR’s strategy to deliver a healthcare platform that spans the spectrum of clinics and devices, is deployed securely in the cloud and provides entry into new markets,” said Al Hildebrandt, CEO of QHR.

Medeo, founded in October 2012 , has a system designed and built by physicians and developers to improve access, efficiency and quality of care for patients and their providers. QHR believes it will be able to leverage this technology to cross-sell QHR’s 10,000 plus physician client base across Canada.

“Medeo has led the Canadian market in the development of the first Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) virtual healthcare platform. At the two-year mark in our business, we have developed a loyal clientele of leading Canadian healthcare providers,” said Michael Dingle, CEO of Medeo. “Aligning with QHR allows for continued innovation and product development toward our goals of improving access to care, delivering a solution that provides for real time reductions in healthcare delivery costs, and contributing positively to the industry goal of improving secure workflow for patient care.”