Ring a Doctor

Health Services Network:

1. Any doctor can request to become an online provider with Ring a Doctor (RaD). They pass through a thorough vetting process to verify their degrees and experience besides assessment of communication skills. This process is managed by the clinical affairs department at RaD.
2. In consultation with RaD, doctors fix their fee ranging from free to any reasonable amount routinely charged for a medical consultation. The duration of each consultation pulse is 10 minutes.
3. There are tutorials for doctors to make them understand the norms and SoPs of providing online consultation.
4. As RaD providers doctors have the option to either fix their schedule through an appointment system or can choose to be online as and when required or as they feel like depending on their contract with RaD.

Information Communication Technology:

1. Patients having internet or 3 or 4 G connectivity on their computers or smart phones have the option to select any doctor from among the pool of doctors registered at RaD as per their preference. There are search options for a particular specialty, language, geographical area or even by symptoms.
2. Currently we have 2 different models in operation. One commercial and the other free. In the commercial version the patient either can choose 'Pay as you go' option or join the pre paid system whereby they get substantial discounts on consultation (up to 50%). This model is primarily for the middle and upper class people residing in cities. While for the lower socioeconomic groups there is a free module in which the patients are not charged any amount. They can get connected either through their own smart phones (provided they have one) or a designated individual from their community having a smart phone with a stable internet connection as the focal person for getting them connected with RaD doctors.
3. Patients receive their prescription after the consultation within the app as well through email.