Case Facts -

1. Ido and his wife cofounded a a health-care enterprise software company called iMDsoft in 1996.
2. Ido left the company in 2000 and became CEO of CareKey, a provider of electronic health management
system that his brother Roy founded.
3. Roy and Ido sold the company to TriZetto Group, which is renamed as CareAdvance later.
4. Roy and Ido used to discuss the issue of affordable, convenient access to quality care, particularly in terms of
place and time of delivery, was an area where technology could make a difference. They had an opportunity to
develop a technology to imitate an interaction with doctor online instead of using internet for redistribution of
medical records. They envisioned brokerage system that used web-based technologies and telephony to bring
patients and physicians together in real time.
5. Roy and Ido formed American well in 2006. American Well invested $70 million to create a sophisticated
technology platform that enabled physicians and patients to transition seamlessly among communication
modalities. The aim was to extend traditional health care into people's home and workplace. They built a
platform that is many-to-many where there is no appointments, no specific time and place instead of traditional
point-to-point health care system.
6. The founders was known to the following anomalies -
i. Patients were waiting for appointments with PCP and they have to wait for about two weeks for
Specialists.
ii. Cost of personal consulting was about $81 per hour
iii. Patient did not want to meet the doctor in person because of social stigma associated with certain
diseases.
iv. Employed patients had to miss their work to attend doctor's appointments.
7. Following are some key factors about the Business Potential -
i. US healthcare expenditures were estimated to top $2.5 trillion and were projected to reach $4.3 trillion.
ii. Approximately 990000 physicians worked in US, 40% of which were PCPs
iii. In 2006, as per survey, 74% of people wanted to communicate with their doctors using e-mail but only
4% were actually doing.
iv. From 2001 to 2008, physicians who communicated with patients online increased from 23% to 36%.
8. Company set different value propositions to the different parties involved. For patients, the focus was on
immediacy, convenience, quality, affordability and choice. For Doctors, it included accreditation, leasing and
equipping an office, hiring and training staff, and so on.
9. After the implementation of DCT model, the company decided health insurance companies should constitute
its primary target customers. The value proposition for health insurance companies had a clear economic
component, as online visit would cost less than in-person office visits.
10. In 2009, American Well implemented their product 'Online Care' in Hawaii. Later, company was in the
dilemma to either carry on with the existing product Online Care or to rollout their new product Team Edition
as the flagship project.