About our project

The problem we solve: As a medical student, I interviewed many patients. I found many of them should have came to the hospital sooner, and also many who did not need to be there at all. At the time, I wished there existed a quick and affordable screening tool to address these issues. Subsequently, while studying for my healthcare management MBA, I learned the best way to bring costs down is to make a near-perfect competitive marketplace and keep the minimum charges low.

About our solution: By creating an Uber-like location-based aggregative online marketplace for doctors and patients that would allow for video consultations charged by the minute, patients could have access to instant medical consultations. In other words, doctors would be accessible in the same manner as an Uber driver; patients could select the doctor of their choice with their finger-tips and start an instant medical consultation – one with affordable fees, as they would only pay per minute used for the consultation.

Progress to date:

ZtoMed is currently available at the iOS app store (for iPhones).

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ztomed/id1375064035?ls=1&mt=8

About Our Company

How We Help Patients

Help patients 1. Golden Minutes (AKA Golden Hour for Medical Emergencies) Problem 1 for Patients. • In a medical emergency, patients often do not have 10 minutes until an ambulance arrives. Solution 1 for Patients. • ZtoMed enables patients or patients’ care givers or willing-to-help bystanders start the crucial and basic medical treatment instead of just waiting at the time of golden minutes.  2. Making Affordable Medical Consultations. Problem 2 for Patients. • Getting a medical consultation is expensive.   Solution 2 for Patients.  • ZtoMed’s medical consultation is affordable.  • Contrast to insurances, we are thinking of reducing the minimum charges.  • Many medical problems don’t require extensive workups.  • Then charging by each minute could be a good way to keep the costs low. 3. Making Easily Accessible Medical Care. Problem 3 for Patients. • Doctors are not easily accessible people.  Solution 3 for Patients.  * ZtoMed enables 1 click talk to a doctor within 10

How We Help Physicians

1. Reimbursement Hassle for Physicians Problem 1 for Physicians. * It takes a long time and a great deal of effort for physicians to get reimbursed for their services from insurance companies.  • Especially for Medicare and Medicaid, physicians get reimbursed not full amounts they requested. • Physician’s main job is to take care of patients. Why physicians waste their time and energy in unnecessary administrative works?  Solution 1 for Physicians. * In ZtoMed, doctors get paid right after the each consultation for 90% of the total charges as ZtoMed collects 10% fee.  * As physicians set their own charges in ZtoMed, if physicians wants certain amount of payments, then all they need to do is to charge 110% of that amount. 2. Getting More Patients  Problem 2 for Physicians. * Newly graduated physicians and newly moved doctors in town often don’t have enough patients to be able to sustain the clinic. They need to get more patients.  Solution 2 for Physicians. * ZtoMed is a location based app. When patients click “Map View” icon, then they see nearby available physicians. They can start instant video chat or schedule to see the doctor in person in her or his clinic. By this way, they can increase the number of their patients. 3. Collaboration among Physicians. Problem 3 for Physicians. • Medical treatment regimens often require collaboration among multiple doctors.  • Often, a patient sees not just one but a few physicians like one internal medicine doctor, one cardiologist, and one ophthalmologist.  • If another doctor prescribed one medication and it conflicts with another doctor’s current treatment plan, it is not easy to cancel the medication another doctor prescribed.  Solution3 for Physicians. * ZtoMed version 2 will enable multi-doctor consultations with a patient while the doctors get properly compensated.

How We Help Hospitals

1. The Emergency Room Utilization. Problem 1 for Hospital.  • The Emergency Room is often utilized by the wrong patients. • Although ERs triage and treat non-urgent patients later, they eventually have to treat the patients who don’t need to be there.  • That is waste of resources. Solution 1 for Hospital. • ZtoMed could be used as a screening tool.  • ZtoMed’s physicians can advise non-urgent patients to stay home and get treated with over the counter medications. • Therefore, ER will be filled with absolutely necessary patients. 2. Reducing Readmission Rate Problem 2 for Hospital. • For many diseases, hospital readmission rates are high. • Just as an example, 20% of heart failure hospitalized patients were readmitted within 30 days in 2011.  Solution 2 for Hospital. • ZtoMed allows prompt communications between clinicians and patients. • As physicians could recognize early symptoms better than patients, more patients can get treated in their clinic rather than hospitalized setting.  3. Collaboration among multiple doctors within the hospital Problem 3 for Hospital • Collaboration among multiple doctors are necessary but those calls are not properly compensated financially. Specialists often not get paid by answering a quick phone call from fellow doctors. Solution 3 for Hospital • When using ZtoMed, every single medical advices get properly compensated financially. • It will lead to better collaborations within the hospital.

How We Help Partners

1. Sales Pitch Opportunity for Pharma and Medical Device Companies Problem1 for Partners. • It is a big hassle to bring doctors to sales pitch places. Solution1 for Partners. • As ZtoMed’s physicians charge by minutes, sales person could limit the payment within legal boundaries while doing quick elevator pitch. 2. Drug Sales Pitch to Patients Problem2 for Partners. • TV and newspaper commercials are not specifically targeted enough. Solution2 for Partners. • ZtoMed would allow drug companies to create their own category. • Drug companies could do the sales pitch directly to patients.  3. Clinical trials subject recruitment Problem3 for Partners. • Pharma companies need to recruit clinical trials subjects and often it is challenging. Solution3 for Partners. • Pharma companies could recruit clinical trials subjects with ZtoMed 4. (Healthcare) Staffing Agency Problem4 for Partners * Especially, it is hard to find nurses.  Solution4 for Partners * ZtoMed could be used as an advertising platform to find medical staffs.

Challenge Mission

Innovation Details

Intellectual Property Summary

Provisional patents have been filed.

Clinical Information

N/A

Regulatory Status

N/A

How we will use the funds raised

Monthly: $8340

Total for the first four months: $33360                                                             

 

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Employees => $4440 per month

- Front end developer	$1500 per month
- Back end developer	$1500 per month
- One sales person	$200 per month
- One customer rep	$180 per month
- Project manager	$280 per month
- CEO	$480 per month
- CTO	$300 per month

 

 

Operational => $3650 per month

- Sales and Marketing	$1000 per month
- Recruitment of doctors and patients	$2500 per month
- Office space	$120 per month
- A server	$30 per month

 

 

Admin => $250 per month

- Accountant	$30 per month
- Legal consultations	$120 per month (3 hours)
- Travel	$100 per month

 

Thank You

When I (Sajung) was a third year med student (M.D. program in U.S.) on surgical clerkship in a community hospital, one underinsured patient came for inflamed gallbladder. As two the surgeons performing endoscopy (ERCP) refused, we called all other hospitals in the state but got rejections by all. As this hospital was group practice in legal structure, no one could demand attendings. Lastly, she got open-abdomen surgery which she didn't need to. I was about to take off my white coat and give her personal advice of going out of this hospital (against medical advice) and walk into a major hospital ER but another attending (my med school professor) didn't allow it.

One month later, I quit med school and established a startup company (machine learning based medical diagnosis) but wasn't able to get funding even after I made a prototype. In order to learn more about business, I entered a MBA program in healthcare management & entrepreneurship at Johns Hopkins. There, I realized the true issue I wanted to solve was not more accurate diagnosis but access to health care issue. I found medical services will be given as long as providers receive proper compensation right away (providers decide their charges). In order to lower the costs, I cut the minimum unit of payment as small as possible (one minute). That is ZtoMed. ZtoMed will provide easily accessible, instantaneous, and affordable healthcare. Vote for ZtoMed to make this true.

 

Supporters

• 
  Kenny Wong
  03/16/2019 - Interested in investing in the project.
• 
  Sajung Yun, Ph.D., M.B.A.
  02/13/2019 - Liked the project.
• 
  Hasmik Antonyan
  12/29/2018 - Followed the project.
• 
  Frank Naeymi-Rad
  10/22/2018 - Liked the project.
• 
  Apple Developer
  10/22/2018 - Interested in a partnership with the project.
• 
  Apple Developer
  10/22/2018 - Interested in investing in the project.
• 
  Apple Developer
  10/22/2018 - Followed the project.
• 
  Eesha Yoga
  10/22/2018 - Followed the project.
• 
  Eesha Yoga
  10/22/2018 - Interested in piloting the project.
• 
  Eesha Yoga
  10/22/2018 - Interested in a partnership with the project.
• 
  Eesha Yoga
  10/22/2018 - Liked the project.

Comments

• 
  Sajung Yun posted on 29th September, 2018

  We are applying for AMIA Pitch IT Competition 2018.

  Report as Spam

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