In rural areas where access to women's health services is often limited, apps like Nurx — which let users have their birth control pills delivered — show promise, according to NPR.
Women who live in so-called "contraception deserts" may have to travel an hour or more to the closest clinic. Nurx, however, is making it more convenient for patients to access birth control by both advising the selection and delivering the pills.
Users log in to the mobile app and fill out a questionnaire. They are then connected to a clinician who reviews their answers and makes a suggestion on the type of contraception best fit for them. The app sends a prescription to a pharmacy, which mails it out for priority delivery to the patient's doorstep.
If patients have health insurance, the service is often free. Otherwise it starts at $15 out-of-pocket per month.
"A lot of them are low-income women who may not have a low-cost clinic available to them in the communities where they live," Brook Randal, MD, an emergency medicine physician based in Austin who works as a provider for Nurx, told NPR. "And so we provide an important service for those women."
However, IUDs and implants — some of the most effective types of birth control — aren't available through the app since they require a visit to a health provider. But, a pill, a ring or a patch are available, as well as emergency contraception. Nurx is currently available in 18 states.
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