Our latest interview is with Dr. Vik D. Bakhru, the COO of First Opinion. As an M.D. Bakhru is concerned about the future of healthcare, and as an MBA he’s passionate about disruptive solutions to the uncertainty facing the industry. Before coming to First Opinion, he served as a Director at New York Presbyterian Hospital/The University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell in New York City.

Vik founded the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC) in 2002, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing health care access to children in underserved areas of the developing world. FIMRC now boasts a team of over 3,000 full-time staff and volunteers who work hard to further develop FIMRC’s self-sustainable revenue model and the world’s first non-monetary model of micro-health insurance.

Vik is obviously an interesting guy; here’s what he had to say…

How would you pitch your company? What’s your elevator pitch?

First Opinion was founded to give everyone access to doctors. We want to save people money and time by providing them with the opportunity to text a doctor first.

What sets you apart from competitors?

First Opinion is about helping people create ongoing relationships with the same doctor and her support team, so that whenever a patient has a question, they can message a medical professional they trust. Other options are transactional, in which the moment a patient is done with an appointment or video chat – he or she is cut off from the doctor. With First Opinion, patients are never alone because the doctor and the support team is always available. Also, unlike other options, First Opinion is free, which clearly sets it apart.

What’s your business model?

First Opinion has created a new class of care situated above the current system, meant to be the first doctor people turn to when a question arises. Static, online information can be informative, but it’s often terrifying because it lacks context and credibility. As well, this information can take hours to sift through and determine which parts apply to your specific situation. First Opinion is the world’s most personal doctor, available 24-hours a day to answer the everyday questions that many visit the doctor for, sometimes leaving the office feeling as though they had wasted their time and money. Doctors today are unique service providers in that they take the fee, typically a co-pay, upfront and then decide if treatment is necessary. If someone is told to return if symptoms worsen, the fee is kept.

First Opinion offers a very personal, free doctor service to help avoid unnecessary doctor visits, during the day and after-hours. Unlike most services, First Opinion works with only the doctors that pass rigorous bedside manner, listening, and personality tests. Our doctors are vetted, top rated, well trained, and many of them are knowledgeable, experienced mothers who are able to answer many of the questions that arise for new parents or pregnant moms.

Can you share some numbers? How many users do you have?

First Opinion doctors have completed over 100,000 consultations in the last 14 months since we launched in December 2013. Our app is live in 44 countries and we have doctors stationed in eight countries.

Where do you see the company going from here?

We see First Opinion expanding in both user base and service offering as the movement continues to spread. Today we best answer the question about whether someone needs to visit a doctor and if their issue is a serious concern. This has been helpful to our users as they decide whether to take a half day off from work, call multiple times to see if they can get an appointment, figure out child care in some situations, and travel sometimes as far as an hour or more depending on where they live and which office is able to see them. First Opinion connects users with a real, live degreed doctor in less than 2 minutes from the time our app is downloaded. With most responses from our doctors delivered in under five minutes, we are the world’s fastest doctor network and are able to get you the help you need quickly when you need it most.

Where do you see the mHealth industry going?

We see continued user adoption as health care marketplace uncertainty grows. With the increased prevalence of high deductible health plans, patients are more than ever before getting accustomed to shopping around for high quality, affordable options that meet their needs. mHealth bridges the gap for many patients today and the intense level of funding from investors is a strong signal and confirmation of the current level of interest/activity from patients that mHealth is an important area for further exploration. I think the next five years will continue to see rapid development of remote, mobile solutions for people’s basic health care needs. At the same time, hospitals and offices will continue to deliver certain aspects of care that cannot be accommodated through a mobile platform. Just as many elective surgical procedures were transitioned over the last decade from hospitals to ambulatory care centers, so too will we likely see many of the basic primary care needs transition from requiring an office visit to being more accessible to patients in their moment of need.

This trend is an important one. From the beginning of medical practice, patients and doctors have relief on being co-located to solve a patient’s medical concern or illness. With the advent of mobile technologies, our society is in an era that is better positioned to match the provision of medical services to the course of disease. Why does it still make sense that I would visit my doctor after two days of feeling ill without improvement? And why is it that I am typically told to return if I am still feeling terrible in two days? Modern health care, and modern patients, should deliver more. The continuum of care needs to match the complete episode of illness. No longer should a ten-minute visit in the office be paired with a several day episode of sickness that unfolds gradually with new symptoms appearing and other symptoms resolving at some unknown point along the spectrum. Having access to a doctor who can guide you each step of the way is a component of improving the overall quality of care our health care system is able to deliver.

How long are we from seeing modern mHealth technologies going mainstream?

Interest in mHealth and other mobile technology trends continues to grow, and according to a recent Salesforce survey, 60% of Millenials support using telehealth to eliminate in-person health visits, and 71% said they’d like to see their providers use an app to book appointments, share health data and manage preventive care. Additionally, just as Facebook has been able to attract a diverse base of users due to the importance of the use case (social interaction with family and friends), so too do we expect that the need for reliable, on-demand access to health care will attract older users who may be less familiar with smartphone technology but who will be motivated to learn because of their need for a better solution to their basic health care needs.