Practice Fusion, the San Francisco-based provider of free EHR software, is launching a site that will allow patients to book an appointment, read a review of a doctor, and view their personal health record.
The site, Patient Fusion, gives patients access to a listing of 27,000 doctors, who are using the company’s EHR and can be categorized based on specialty and location. There will also patient written “reviews” of the doctor on the site, Practice Fusion says. This could be a well-timed release for Practice Fusion since according to a recent report from PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI), healthcare consumers are searching for reviews and ratings to guide their decision-making – but haven’t found what they need yet.
“It’s crazy that you can find quality restaurants easier than quality doctors. We’re changing that today,” Ryan Howard, CEO of Practice Fusion, said in a statement. “Patient Fusion means unprecedented transparency into health care for patients—the power to choose your doctor based on quality and the power to access and control your own health records. This easy access should be—and will be—a basic right.”
In addition to allowing patients the ability to book an appointment and read a review of a doctor, the platform gives them access to their records. According to Practice Fusion, this helps them track data such as immunizations and allergies to ensure its accuracy.
Thus far, the market for booking a doctor’s appointment has been dominated by Zoc Doc, a New York-based startup, which similar to Practice Fusion has received a notable amount of venture capital funding. According to an article from Giga Om, Practice Fusion believes their pool of doctors is three times as large than ZocDoc’s. The other difference between the two, the article notes, is while Zoc Doc charges doctors $300/month to be listed for appointments, Practice Fusion’s service is free to its users.
