A few months after its Series C Round, Grand Rounds is advancing its virtual consult platform with the launch of a program to give employer plan members and individuals access to physicians at well-known institutions online through a service called ExpertLink, according to a company statement.
The program is designed to provide access to specialists at institutions such as the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York and Boston Children’s Hospital to individuals whether the user is in the U.S. or outside the country. Grand Rounds manages appointment booking and also checks to make sure the patient’s insurance is compatible in cases where patients will continue their care with the institution.
In a phone interview, Grand Rounds co-founder and CEO Owen Tripp said it began the program to help hospitals expand their reach beyond their catchment area to all 50 states and beyond. Although the four-year old company has offered a consult service for years, working with institutions ramps its service up to a whole new level.
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Tripp said the move reflects the changing dynamic for hospitals preparing for payment reform looking for new sources of revenue and ways to extend their brand.
“It is very often the case that the recommendation of the experts can be applied locally,” Tripp said. He said much of the service will involve reviewing recommendations and treatment protocols. But in cases where patients or, in the case of children, families decide to have a procedure done at Boston Children’s or New York Hospital for Special Surgery, Grand Rounds has an electronic health record that collects relevant information. Hospitals license the software from Grand Rounds. They do record keeping, storage management, a full review of experts’ time.
Although several hospitals and health systems such as Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and others have worked to extend their brand beyond the U.S., Tripp said what it is doing is allowing hospitals to do this in a much easier way.
“The world for a lot of these top-end hospitals is changing,” Tripp said. “They need to be better-known for their ability to coordinate care to bring systems into the modern age because we believe that’s what’s involved in the system of healthcare.”
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Tripp said it plans to announce additional partnerships in the coming weeks.
Grand Rounds’ program seems like a great opportunity for patients to get access to specialist insights from institutions where access poses a challenge. By offering consults through a review of medical records, it offers a way to avoid the crossborder telemedicine restrictions hospitals and patients face. It will also be interesting to see what kind of impact this program has over time, both on patient outcomes and how the patient’s local hospital and consulting institution work together, even if indirectly.
