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Need To See A Doctor And Don't Want To Wait? There's An App For That

Vivek Sodera avoids the doctor at all costs.

"Going to the doctor's is almost as bad as going to the DMV," he said.

So when he hurt his knee...

"Attempting some Usher-esque breakdancing moves."

... instead of heading to a clinic, he whipped out his smartphone, because now there's an app for that.

Telemedicine is the next wave of medical care. It's called Doctor on Demand co-founded by Jay McGraw, son of television therapist Dr. Phil McGraw.

When patients click on the app, they're routed to a physician licensed for their own state.

Dr. Ian Tong saw barriers to care in his previous work for the Veterans Administration. Travel time and difficulty, and just plain distaste for all that a doctor's visit entails—now it's just as easy as a video chat, and just as accurate.

"You can actually move yourself a long way toward getting 95 percent certainty of what you think that problem is," he said.

Any downsides there may be, the new company is quick to downplay. They store information on encrypted servers, leaving nothing stored on phones.

And at a cost of $40 a televisit, the service compares to an office visit copay without the office visit wait.

For Sodera, whose televisit got him on the right road to care, it was money well spent.

The app is free, and their doctors are licensed and insured in the state in which you live.

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