[Toronto, CANADA] If CanadaMD and Malexa Corp. have their way, medical help-seekers won’t be
yelling, ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’ but ‘Is there is a doctor online?’
Toronto’s CanadaMD, an online healthcare company, and Malexa Corp., a
clinical trials site management organization, have signed a letter of intent to create
a strategic alliance between the two companies.
The companies plan to build a co-branded online clinical trial center to be
accessible from the CanadaMD.com Web site. In addition, both companies will
join forces in sharing resources, content, marketing initiatives, and strategy, with
the goal of offering mutually beneficial services to Canadian health professionals
and consumers.
“Malexa has established operations in numerous medical clinics throughout
Canada,” said CanadaMD founder and president Richard Davis, “and they are in
the unique position to facilitate between pharmaceutical company, doctor, and
patient.”
The parties expect to unveil the co-branded site when the CanadaMD.com main
Web site is launched in April 2001. The purpose of the pending site is to facilitate
communication between patient, physician, hospital, insurer, employer,
laboratory, pharmacy, hospital, and government, resulting in a single environment
for all health-related transactions and information.
All of which is good news to today’s tech-savvy patients. According to a survey
of physicians conducted by Ipsos-Reid for The Medical Post’s annual poll of
doctors, seven out of 10 Canadian doctors report that patients are appearing for
appointments equipped with medical information obtained from the Internet.
About 65 percent of physicians reported that online information patients have
shared with them has been helpful to the patient’s overall well-being. And 73
percent of patients had gathered online information about drugs or medical
products while 61 percent compiled online information on treatment protocols.
But while online healthcare sites promise to open the lines of communication
between doctors and their patients, a whopping 91 percent of doctors polled said
they are at least “somewhat suspicious” of the online medical information their
patients obtain. About 25 percent reported being “very suspicious” and five
percent were “extremely suspicious.”
In the end, an ‘applet’ a day might not keep the doctor away as tech-savvy
patients had once hoped.
