The Cleveland Clinic, one of the five largest group healthcare practices in America, has 3,150 staff physicians and scientists working in 130 medical specialties and subspecialties. In 2014, the clinic had more than 50 thousand acute admissions, more than 25 thousand surgeries, and more than 100 thousand emergency department visits.  These are big numbers, but 100 times larger was the had 5.5 million outpatient visits. A new telehealth initiative may make the outpatient number seem small.

The Cleveland Clinic has announced MyCare Online. For $49, anyone with an Internet connected mobile device with a camera can connect to a doctor or other healthcare provider within 60 seconds. MyCare Online is intended for the care of minor ailments that might otherwise be handled in an urgent care center such as CVS’s Minute Clinic.

Healthcare is necessary but often inconvenient, requiring driving and waiting. With telehealth, healthcare can become convenient. It is not appropriate for everything, but a large number of ailments, it is easy for a physician to make a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment. Read more about the growing empowerment of consumers in Health Attitude.