Romanian doctors launch first online hospital in Europe

SpitalOnline.ro, a platform offering live doctor-patient chat was launched in Romania at the initiative of a group of Romanian doctors and with the support of several Great Britain specialists, following an investment of EUR 30,000.

The project is an alternative to traditional consultations, allowing patients to benefit from medical services across a range of 30 specialties at any time of day. The cost of a consultation is RON 85. Subscribers benefit from a special fare of 50 RON per consult.

The cost of a full year subscription is RON 190. If the doctor of choice is not online, the patient can make an appointment or can see one of the doctors who are online. Before getting in touch with the doctor, the patient must pay the fee. The patient can send the doctor copies of medical tests and others in electronic format. Only the patient and the doctor will have access to the medical files.

Initially, a total of 150 doctors will get involved in the project. The founders of the platform estimate that one year from launch, they will be collaborating with 400 doctors every month- both Romanian doctors who work in the country and abroad, as well as foreign specialists.

To get in touch with the doctors, patients should make an account, select the specialty and look on the list of doctors to see who is online and who isn’t. The doctors offer support and conciliation for minor urgencies, interpreting analysis, presumptive diagnosis. They can also release certifications which are valid in any EU country, prescriptions, and medical exemption.

The medical specialties available are allergology, infectious diseases, cardiology, dermato-venerology, diabetes and nutrition, endocrinology, gastroenterology, gynecology, family medicine, general medicine, internal medicine, sports medicine, nephrology, neurology, ophthalmology, oncology, ORL, orthopedics, pediatrics, pneumology, psychiatry, psychology, rheumatology, dental medicine and urology.

“We are living in a time of speed and digital, and the patient-doctor interaction must keep pace with these technological changes. (..) According to surveys, approximately 70 percent of the visits to a hospital or offline clinic to generate a diagnostic and a medical conduct, could be mediated by technology, so they could be avoided. Also, if we look on the internet and read the forums, we can see there are hundreds of people who are looking online for answers to various medical issues. We wish to avoid the situation in which these people, often without support from trained medical staff, treat themselves by ear,” said Dr. Mihai Rascu, founder of SpitalOnline.ro.

The founders of SpitalOnline.ro aim to build in time a national network of collaborating doctors and expand the international partnerships to other countries in Europe, but also Central and South America. In terms of revenues, founders estimate they will reach EUR 180,000 in the first year since launch.

“In Great Britain, there are several similar attempts but these are not independent platforms but online clinics that represent extensions of offline clinics and which do not have such a large number of doctors. (…) We are in discussions with other colleagues from Great Britain who wish to offer online consultations,” said dr. Umer Butt, Senior Knee and Arthroscopic Shoulder Surgeon in CircleBath Londra.