He treats his patients even the olympic Games

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The doctor Sylvain Couture, who is in South Korea for the olympic Games, continues to make consultations with a web-based platform on which the patients filled out a questionnaire.

Hugo Duchaine

Tuesday, February 20, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Tuesday, February 20, 2018 01:00

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A quebec physician in South Korea for the olympic Games continues to treat his patients in Quebec thanks to a new platform online medical.

“I opened my computer, and I do consultations for patients to Dolbeau [in the Lac-Saint-Jean], or in a small village in the Mauricie region “, said the gp de Montréal Sylvain Couture.

It is yet to Pyeongchang in this time, as the doctor for the hundreds of employees of the broadcaster of the olympic Games. But it is one to two visits each day for patients in Quebec, despite the 14 hour time difference.

Questionnaire

Launched this fall, the platform AkioSoft allows patients to get a diagnosis, where and when they want it, by filling out a detailed questionnaire. The fifty questions adapts according to the ailments and symptoms described.

“More need to coordinate our schedules with those of doctors […] I do this when I need it, without appointment, at 3 am in the morning or at work,” describes the founder of AkioSoft, Francis Nicloux.

On its platform, the patients can then see when the doctors will be available to view the results of the questionnaire. They can then ask them additional questions, prescribe a drug, or a review to a specialist, for example.

“An exchange [with the doctor] is possible, he assured Mr. Nicloux, but it is 100 % web-as-process. “

The cost of access to the platform is $ 9.95 for a patient. The cost of the consultation, charged by the doctors, then $ 20 to $ 40, ” says M. Nicloux, because telemedicine is not yet reimbursed in Québec, as is the case in British Columbia.

Open to all

So far, four general practitioners, registered and they could invite their patients to try it. But the platform is now open to all, they have already another family doctor or not.

Others will be recruited and trained when there will be more requests, ” he continues.

For the moment, Dr. Couture said he was very satisfied with his experience with the consultations on the web. “It is a better access for patients,” he said, with the impression that they have been able to avoid visits to the emergency room with some of them.

It has in particular been prescribed antibiotics for sinusitis, renewed prescriptions or changed the dosage of some patients, depression for example, who did not feel better.

Sylvain Couture ensures that he alone is diagnostic. If he feared he might have more difficulty without the patient in front of him, this is not the case. It is not least of diagnostics as well as in the office.