Henry Schein, a healthcare products distributor, formed a partnership with Uber Health that will allow physicians to order portable medical microcarts to be driven to patients' homes for remote examinations.
Uber Health's driving service will be integrated with Medpod's telediagnostics platform. Medpod, a healthcare software company, developed the Medpod MobileDoc 2, which is a portable microcart that includes medical devices and instruments that can perform functions such as examining skin lesions and detecting heart attacks and heart rhythm problems. The microcart can measure patients' temperatures, oxygen levels and blood pressure for the remote exam.
By adding Uber Health's services to the Medpod platform, a physician can dispatch an Uber driver with the Medpod microcart to the home or location of a patient who needs to be examined. The physician can then use the microcart's technology to complete the exam, and if the patient requires further medical attention, the Uber driver can transport the patient to the physician's office.
The organizations plan to launch a pilot program to test the partnership based on Uber Health's resources and capacity.
"Our new partnership with Uber Health, and launch of Medpod MobileDoc 2, will help break down barriers that had previously required diagnostic exams to take place in traditional care settings," said Jack Tawil, Medpod chairman and CEO, according to the news release.