CheckedUp is the only, physician-founded, specialty technology platform designed for the Point of Care actively engaging Patients, Caregivers, and Physicians in the Waiting Room, Exam Room, and at home. CheckedUp embraces technology to help bring innovative ideas, products, and services to help enhance and advance the health and wellbeing of all people. The Founder and CEO Dr. Richard Awdeh, share more details with TechBullion in this interview.
Please tell us a little more about yourself?
I’m Dr. Richard Awdeh, CEO and Founder of CheckedUp. Previous to CheckedUp, I attended Emory University and obtained my BBA in Finance and Computer Science. After completing business school, I went on to Yale University School of Medicine to obtain my M.D. I was practicing medicine at Duke University as an Ophthalmologist before moving to Miami, FL to begin practicing at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the country’s #1 Eye Hospital by US News & World Report for 15 years. Here I worked as a Cornea-Refractive Surgeon and Professor.
In 2012 I founded CheckedUp to create a pathway of revolutionizing the way doctors care for their patients, and empowering patients’ decisions through point of care education.
I have served as Chairman of the FDA Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee, and currently serve on the Yale University CBIT Board of Directors and lecture at the Yale University School of Management on Healthcare Innovation and New Venture Creation.
What is CheckedUp?
CheckedUp is a physician founded healthcare technology company focused on patient education and engagement …. which is a fancy way of saying that we place large format digital displays in practice waiting rooms, and interactive touchscreens in exam rooms. These devices are being used by over 30,000 healthcare professionals to visually educate patients on their conditions and potential treatment options, and provide engaging, specialty-specific content during patient downtime or waiting periods. We provide these great tools at no cost to the practices and hospital themselves.
How specifically does CheckedUp’s Technology adoption increase practice performance for Physicians?
Our technologies help increase performance in two main ways – by offering quality patient education and enabling practices to promote their practice, services and share information with ease. Our devices contain specialty-specific content, sourced from top US educational institutions and health content producers. The patient guides and visuals on our screens help nurses and physicians detail otherwise difficult concepts, and allow for sharing via email. Practices can also update their TVs and Wallboards with physician bios, announcements and practice information to elevate the office feel and better communicate with patients.
Tell us more about the virtual waiting room for patients, how does it work and what are the benefits?
The virtual waiting room offers physicians the ability to keep their waiting rooms safe during covid. As a part of Virtual Visits, the Virtual Waiting Room greets patients and displays educational videos they can watch as they wait. If a practice has closed off their waiting room for safety reasons and the patients are waiting in their car, this feature can be used as a means to call the patients in when the physician is ready as well. The videos keep patients attentive and reduce perceived wait time while offering a practical means to keep the waiting areas low-traffic.
Recent data collected by IQVIA predicts that almost 1 billion diagnosis visits were missed in 2020, what are the most visited and most missed doctor appointments in 2020?
The specialties with the most missed appointments would be Oncology, Gastroenterology, Dermatology, Anesthesiology, and Ophthalmology. CheckedUp operates in Oncology, Dermatology, and Ophthalmology among others, and we are already seeing a large uptick in return to office visits due to the pent up demand from missed appointments in 2020.
The global digital health market size was valued at USD 96.5 billion in 2020. This is expected to grow substantially by 2028.
What does the future of Healthcare look like with the trending hybrid approach to patient care?
I think the impact of covid will be lasting on the physician’s office. Telemedicine is not new – we’ve had some solutions for a time, but patients have always opted for in-person consultations. Now patients and Physicians have been forced in some cases to experience telemedicine, and they’re liking it. For primary care and urgent care, patients are opting for telemedicine for quick consultations or check-ins. This saves the physician’s time and the patients a hassle, improving the experience for everyone. Our view is that telemedicine will play a role, albeit more in an augmented form, for specialty care.
Is primary care now obsolete? What is the boundary between one-on-one healthcare visits and digital healthcare?.
Primary care has and will continue to experience the most dramatic shift based on the Black Swan event of Covid. The trends forcing this are consumerism in healthcare, need for access – and desire for immediate access, and distributed models of primary care, including through local pharmacies. The forced adoption of technology in healthcare due to Covid has accelerated the evolution of primary care to utilize technology to facilitate these trends.
CheckedUp received certification from the Point of Care Communication Council, could you tell us more about this and the benefits?
The Point of Care Communication Council, or PoC3, is an industry trade group that was formed to provide standards and guidelines for point of care marketing solutions. The POC3 has worked hard with media buyers and out of home media publishers to create verification and validation guidelines to promote transparency in this industry.
CheckedUp’s most recent certification comes with these increased standards is important as we commit as a company to continue to push the needle forward in trust and transparency.
For more information, please visit the CheckedUp website;
Website: https://www.checkedup.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/checkedup
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GetCheckedUp/