"What's the main reason relationships fail?" Dr. Jay Parkinson asked an audience in the Sidney E. Frank Hall for Life Sciences last night.
"Communication!" shouted a student in the audience.
"Exactly," replied Parkinson.
Parkinson, a self-proclaimed "accessible doctor" who "communicates just like you," spoke directly to nearly 25 students from the University and the Alpert Medical School about his use of the Internet to improve the doctor-patient relationship as part of the ongoing Eureka! Lecture Series.
Parkinson is a physician based in Williamsburg, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. - which he described as "the epitome of cool" - who started "the world's first virtual practice" in 2007 with $1,500 and the goal of a "super easy" doctor visit. He said he designed his own Web site with the idea that patients could communicate with him via e-mail, instant messaging, texting and video chat.
Dubbed "Dr. IM" by the media, Parkinson is currently the Chief Concept Officer for Myca, a "consumer-friendly" technology platform that promotes "an entire range of communications" between doctors and patients.
Describing his profession as "awesome" and "very cool," Parkinson engaged in a casual presentation and discussion with the audience.
Parkinson said he founded his revolutionary practice to "produce quality medicine" as opposed to the "quantity medicine" that he claims permeates the health care industry. Parkinson said physicians feel pressure to decrease face-to-face time with patients in order to maximize the number of people served.
Taking aim at the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, Parkinson said there is a 70 percent overhead cost in most aspects of health care. He likened insurance companies to "sugar mamas."
Parkinson added that despite advances in technology, most hospitals and health care providers function under a "3,000-year-old system" run with "slips of paper" instead of computers.
But Parkinson said he is working to change that.
Parkinson told the audience that he founded his practice to use free Internet applications like Skype, iChat and Google Calendar, and today he is part of a group of doctors that do the same. Parkinson is now one of four doctors at Hello Health, the "neighborhood doctors of the 21st century," according to the practice's Web site. The group, a subsidiary of Myca based in Williamsburg, proposes a communication platform where each patient is surrounded by a network of physicians.
For a $35 monthly membership fee, patients of Hello Health have access to all four doctors either in person at the practice's office - for a cost of $100 to $200 per visit - or through the Internet using forms of telecommunication like e-mail, IM or video chat, he said.
Unlike most health care providers, Parkinson said, Hello Health provides patients with free, prepackaged medications at office visits and operates with just 10 percent overhead cost. He added that the practice also functions like a social networking or shopping Web site, allowing patients to "rate" doctors based on quality of service.
"Ratings hold me accountable," he said.
Hello Health is wildly popular in Brooklyn and plans to open a second office this year in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood in Manhattan, N.Y., and the doctors have adopted a "streamlined" and creative advertising campaign that "sells the experience" of the practice, he said.
Among the more innovative ideas of the advertising campaign is the practice's "free shots" initiative, Parkinson said. 5,000 local patients can receive a free flu shot, followed by a free shot of alcohol at a local bar - or a free shot of wheatgrass, if they prefer.
Students responded enthusiastically to the innovative ideas of Parkinson and Hello Health.
"I think he's doing fascinating things. He's really revolutionizing the approach," Jason Beckman '11 said.
Parkinson received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis before attending Penn State College of Medicine. He completed his residency in pediatric medicine at St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village. Parkinson completed a second residency in preventative medicine at Johns Hopkins University. He also earned a master's in public health at Johns Hopkins.
The next Eureka! Lecture, presented by the University's Entrepreneurship Program, will take place on Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. It will feature Terry Lozoff and Brett Zaccardi, co-founders of the Boston-based alternative-marketing agency, Street Attack.
