These days with the internet, online consultation has become very common but what’s not common is online doctor/medical consultation. What’s also uncommon is a recommendation for something so tricky and precious as health.
Doctor Spring is not a new online doctor service, and perhaps that’s why I am mentioning it now. They have been around for over three years and claim to have over 200+ online doctors in 41 specialities. I have used their service and although I won’t entirely agree with the response time that they claim on their website, the online doctors they have, well they are good.
So what does Doctor Spring exactly do?
In a nutshell, they let you ask a question & they promise to give a quick and detailed reply. Your question can be as detailed as possible, and you can also upload files.
There are follow up questions which are included in the fee, but we’ll discuss that in detail below. One thing to keep in mind is that they have a Quality Assurance team which objectively audits all consultations for depth, scientific accuracy and patient satisfaction. If a patient is not happy with the answers, then they offer 100% Money Back Guarantee.
Let’s take a look at Doctor Spring in a little detail.
Ask a Doctor
Ask a Doctor is the name of the service that caters to simple medical problems that can be answered by a certified Family Physicians or General Practitioners.
In this service, 2 follow up questions are included. You simply ask your question in detail, upload files and pick either a one time question package which is priced at $21 OR choose a monthly package for $29 that includes unlimited questions for a month. They also guarantee a quick and detailed response within between 2 and 8 hours.
Ask a Board Certified Specialist MD
Doctor Spring also lets you put a question which once again can be very detailed & you can upload as many files as possible for the doctor to see and assess. The price as you can see from the picture is $35 as a one-time payment, and three follow-up questions are included. In this package, you also have the option to pick a specialist in any of the specialities they offer, or you can pick the option of “Let the In-house Physician Choose for me”. The monthly subscription which comes at $59 includes unlimited follow-up and in all specialities. They also guarantee a quick and detailed answer within 4 to 12 Hours.
Do note that all packages include money back guarantee if satisfaction level is not met. I also noticed that once you have sent your question/follow-up and then remember a few more details or want to attach a lab report that just came in, and you see that they have not replied back, then all you need to do is simply go back to your question/follow-up and add/edit those required details or lap reports.
The payment gateway Doctor Spring uses is secured via PayPal and CCAvenue, and the mode of payments acceptable to them are Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and PayPal (USD only). If you don’t have a PayPal account, you can still make your payment via Credit Card and use the option to ‘pay with debit or credit card’.
Verdict
Doctor Spring is certainly an excellent service and the specialist who was assigned to me was fairly accurate with his findings. How do I know this? Because I visited a doctor at my local clinic and she too gave me the same diagnosis. However, the online services for a physician are not nearly as accurate as the doctor you go to in person. So although you should use this service (as I didn’t come across any red flags) only in the case of double checking your diagnosis.
Note: If you don’t get a response in the time frame they have given, then you should send an email to their support staff so they can figure out the delay and get a response out soon.