Healthymagination

Would you text your doctor if you had a health question? Truth On Call is a start-up that uses SMS technology to gather and deliver physicians’ answers to a consortium of questions. In a nutshell:

1. Truth On Call works with members of the healthcare industry to formulate questions.
2. The organization then sends the questions to physicians via text.
3. The physicians answer via text, using multiple-choice response.
4. The answers are sent out to those who asked them (though it isn’t clear whether their answers are combined or the asker receives multiple answers over time?).
5. For participating, physicians receive $10 per question answered. They can keep the money or donate it to a charity.

The idea is physicians will provide an answer within minutes of a question being asked. According to this NY Times article, Truth On Call wants to eventually offer the service to caregivers and doctors in developing countries who are looking for advice from doctors in the US.

A great idea, but it comes at a price. Right now, it costs $50 to ask one question—not cheap, especially considering less targeted or reliable (but wider reaching) real-time services like Twitter are free. Speaking of, you can follow the organization on Twitter: @truthoncall. Their bio is promising: “earth’s fastest verified physician input.”