Denver, Colorado-based CirrusMD will be powering up telehealth program of the Austin Regional Clinic (ARC) called eMD Access, enabling some Central Texas employees to skip a trip to the doctor’s office or emergency room.

Employees opting to use the service will have round-the-clock access to a team of ARC doctors via secure text messaging, image sharing and video chat through CirrusMD’s HIPAA-compliant online/mobile platform.

CirrusMD is a 2013 graduate of Velocity Venture Capital’s Entrepreneurs Showcase Accelerator program.ARC doctors using eMD Access will be available to treat many common maladies, write prescriptions, order tests, and refer patients to a doctor’s office or emergency room for further medical care. The service would not be used for true medical emergencies, CirrusMD adds, and it won’t substitute primary care management of chronic issues like diabetes or hypertension.

“CirrusMD believes that all healthcare is local. By partnering with medical groups on a regional basis, we enable doctors and health systems to expand reach into their communities,” says Dr. Blake McKinney, CirrusMD’s originating co-founder. “This is a fundamentally different market approach from other national telemedicine companies that use their own doctors, licensed in dozens of states to communicate remotely with patients outside of, and in competition with local networks.”

CirrusMD is a 2013 graduate of Velocity Venture Capital’s Entrepreneurs Showcase Accelerator program, a 10-week program based in Northern California that educates and mentors top startups and then connects them with potential investors, advisors and customers. Following their graduation, Velocity invested in the company as part of a $1.25 million seed round alongside corporate investors that closed in March 2015.