Bryan R. Fine, MD, MPH’s Post

Well: I guess I've 'invented' a new way to practice medicine, where in-person and 'telehealth' are just...constituents parts of a singular whole, with the singular whole being hyper-focused on solving as many basic healthcare needs as possible, using common sense, collaboration, and a basic assumption that most patients are good, reliable, smart people who sometimes need helping solving simple things. To me, there'll all just tools to try and accomplish something: Better healthcare. A text, a phone call...are like a stethoscope, a otoscope. Part of diagnostics, part of service. In the current traditional model, we've sorta bastardized the journey with nonsense. This approach, then, has required me to also 'invent' a way to deliver this service to patients and get paid for the care I provide, because my mission is to be effectively zero-barrier access for patients across the socioeconomic spectrum (thus, I use SMS texting, worksite visits, and no-cost episodic engagement). No prior auth need ;) Not sure if you're aware, but there is no CPT billing code for a 'visit' that spans five days, includes check-ins, follow-ups and pivots, and let's patients ask quick-questions that exist in that space between Google and the doctor's office. And importantly: I love what I do. BFineMD #letpatientstext #workplacehealth PS: The text imaging accompanying this post is from a patient who just popped-in when I came onsite to discuss a recent tick bite. To have concerns assuaged. I'll stay in touch with him for several days, make sure he remains well and at-peace. Appreciation and value come from some of the simplest encounters. ***** #doctorjobs #healthcare #healthtech #entrepreneur #saas #sms #humanresources #healthbenefits #text Follow me (and click 🔔) and you will smile more. Promise.

Word on the street is that there's going to be an amazing talk about providing easy access, no cost, basic healthcare to employees at the upcoming VA-SHRM conference next week. Apparently - and I'm just the messenger here - dude giving the talk is really funny, and handsome, and wicked smart. #vashrm #shrm #humanresources #wickedsmart

I'm proud to announce that I still haven't raised any venture capital. No big seed round to post about. It's not that I wouldn't want to, per se. It's just that this darn helping-patients, and building-software, and coaching-baseball, and chattin'-with-my-mom, and going-to-kickboxing, and making-adult-friends, and reading-bedtime-stories keeps gettin' in the way. My medical practice, that offers easy access to basic healthcare at no-cost using text messaging and onsite engagement, is cool and thriving. Happy to talk about it with anyone, while also learning what you do. My software, which supports my medical practice and lots of other small businesses by making communicating-with-text easy, is cool and thriving. Happy to talk about it with anyone, while also learning what you do. Gonna keep bootstrappin' for a while, here. And, smiling (most of the time). That's...my brand. BFineMD #letpatientstext #workplacehealth ***** #doctorjobs #healthcare #healthtech #entrepreneur #saas #sms #humanresources #healthbenefits #text Follow me (and click 🔔) and you will smile more. Promise.

My kids played with an old-school Slinky for a couple hours this week. (Cue catchy jingle here...for some of you older folks 🙂 ) Moral of the story? Don't need the latest, greatest 'technology' for high-value. Let patients text. Regular SMS. BF #letpatientstext #workplacehealth ***** #doctorjobs #healthcare #healthtech #entrepreneur #saas #sms #humanresources #healthbenefits #text Follow me (and click 🔔) and you will smile more. Promise.

Here's my 90/80 rule that, to date, I have found is inexorable: 90% of the time, I throw away at least 80% of the strawberries I purchase. As opposed to my 100/99 rule, also inexorable, which states: 100% of the time, 99% of patients love texting their doctor. BFineMD #letpatientstext #workplacehealth ***** #doctorjobs #healthcare #healthtech #entrepreneur #saas #sms #humanresources #healthbenefits #text Follow me (and click 🔔) and you will smile more. Promise.

'Thank you' means a lot to a physician, 'cuz we're human. This is a screenshot of the texting platform with built-in- EMR I built to communicate with patients. On their end, it's regular SMS which they...really, really love. Easy access. Isn't that, ultimately, one of (if not definitely) the most important metrics we should consider? ;) Let. Patients. Text. BFineMD #letpatientstext #workplacehealth ***** #doctorjobs #healthcare #healthtech #entrepreneur #saas #sms #humanresources #healthbenefits #text Follow me (and click 🔔) and you will smile more. Promise.

We. Are. Still. Using. Faxes. In. Healthcare. !!! 😯 I sent a fax to a radiology provider a lil' while back. Apparently, their process is they get the fax and then contact the patient. It is a process that, for the entirety of my life, I have had ZERO confidence in. Patient texted me to let me know no one contacted her, after several business days (>1 week). I actually wish she'd let me know sooner. Goes without saying, they didn't call me either, to say the patient didn't answer, or they needed more information. (And, yes: I have 'confirmation' on my end that the fax was successfully sent.) So, I called the 'referral' line and hit #2 ('Are you a doctor's office?') and left a message. Have no idea who / what gets that. Then, I sent this text...may as well tackle this from both sides, right? Crazy. Oh: And let patients text. Because it's way, way, way better (and likely far more secure also) then faxing. Faxing! Holy sh*t. BFineMD #letpatientstext #workplacehealth ***** #doctorjobs #healthcare #healthtech #entrepreneur #saas #sms #humanresources #healthbenefits #fax #faxingsucks Follow me (and click 🔔) and you will smile more. Promise.

Friend of mine just asked employer to keep hours low to keep Medicaid for self and kiddo. This seems odd to me, right? Not on person side, but rather that...this is actually a thing. (Friends can always text me for help, of course. No cost. 😉) BFineMD #letpatientstext #workplacehealth ***** #doctorjobs #healthcare #healthtech #entrepreneur #saas #sms #humanresources #healthbenefits #medicaid Follow me (and click 🔔) and you will smile more. Promise.

When I started my SaaS giddy-up, I knew nothing about SaaS. Some years later, with MRR coming in, I know something. But still little. This stuff, much of the time, seems harder than medical school 😏 BF #letpatientstext #workplacehealth ***** #doctorjobs #healthcare #healthtech #entrepreneur #saas #sms #humanresources #healthbenefits #text Follow me (and click 🔔) and you will smile more. Promise.

Gonna admit: I didn’t work much this week. Was in Florida with my kids, visiting family. As an entrepreneur, you get stuck in that in-between often. On your death bed, you’ll never regret the email you didn’t send or hour you didn’t work, they say, but you will regret the moments you lost with kids. If it were only that simple? I try, in fact, to make it that simple, and that inevitably leaves me behind in the hustle points. Screw it. If I fail, I fail. (I did, however, text with my patients. Not, like, an immediate response time. But we got it done.) Oh, and: Let patients text. Doctors, healthcare executives, health systems…Figure it out. The barriers are fabricated and self-serving. BFineMD #letpatientstext #workplacehealth ***** #doctorjobs #healthcare #healthtech #entrepreneur #familyfirst #singledad #saas #sms #humanresources #healthbenefits #text Follow me (and click 🔔) and you will smile more. Promise.