xiaosongmu

Great question - Call9 is different because we immediately put you in touch with an emergency doc, even as the first responders are trying to get to you. By the time EMTs get to the site, we have already begun triaging. And, when first responders do arrive, our physicians help make decisions based on their extensive medical expertise.

Right now, when EMTs get to the site, they don't know anything about the patient. With Call9, EMTs can begin work right away upon arrival.

As for long-term, we want this kind of service to reach everyone - that's certainly our end goal. But traditional emergency services have to completely alter their business and operational models to offer what Call9 offers.

Most people don't realize this but there are a lot of inefficiencies with the current 911 system that jeopardize the safety of patients. It takes on average over an hour to see an MD from the time you call 911. In that time, a lot of triage and diagnostics, and even treatment can happen. We cut down that time drastically.

Additionally, a very large portion of 911 calls come from patients who should not be going to the emergency room. Going to the emergency room is always exposing yourself to risk (such as hospital infections), not to mention unnecessary stress and pain. For the elderly, or very young patients, or very ill patients, this undue (and often unnecessary) stress can have very detrimental effects on the patient. Call9 can prevent that portion of calls from going to the hospital.

So with call9, we either A: provide safer, better service on top of traditional 911, or B: we skip the emergency room altogether.

If the patient needs an ambulance, the Call9 doctor can easily order one. One advantage of this system is that the doctor can prep the EMTs on what they need to know as they're en route to the emergency. The TC article elaborates on this a bit.

Hey HN! XiaoSong here (cofounder/CTO at Call9). Would love to answer any questions people might have about the product.