I'm curious as to how safe Nurx is. Some birth control can cause serious health issues if your background and / or current health are not taken into account. Is an app that asks questions "good enough" to remove the liability of a doctor prescribing something that could hurt / kill someone? Or am I just way off base? If anyone can elaborate it would be helpful :)
I think it's definitely an interesting concept. Maybe the market isn't ready for it yet (regulations), but hopefully this startup can spur a congressional discussion about online prescriptions in 3-5 years.
It's essentially one-step beyond telemedicine. Nothing wrong with that. And as it expands to include other drugs such as ED drugs and maybe (maybe) drugs such as adderall.
What I really don't like is them calling themselves the "Uber of birth control", do you expect women to share their birth control with each other!?!?!? This is not a sharing economy business and should not be referred to as such. This is a form of digital medicine, one step beyond telemedicine and should be referred to as such. Stop being lazy and figure out how to describe your company.
> One of our doctors will review your request right away. If she needs more information or has relevant advice, she may call you before writing your prescription. [1]
I read that. The part that concerned me was not being there and looking at the patient. Birth control can cause some serious side affects. Granted it's a small portion of the population if I recall correctly but even so the patients are not doctors and may not understand the seriousness of answering a question incorrectly (or may not realize they are or their health could have changed since the last time they, say, had their blood pressure checked).
Hence I'm curious what type of liability this opens them up to. Like I said maybe it's nothing / not a big deal but I was hoping if someone knew they could comment.
Presumably a doctor would know all this, and would take appropriate precautions prior to prescribing any medication.
And, there is also such a thing as acceptable risk. Incorrectly used, even over the counter medicine such as aspirin can result in fatalities (Reye's syndrome)
I call out Aspirin specifically, because you have to be very careful with children/teenagers who have flu-like symptoms or are recovering from chickenpox. This is a drug that can kill in fairly well known situations, but is available over the counter. Just because a drug is dangerous to certain people, doesn't mean that it can't, or shouldn't be prescribed by a doctor electronically.
Aspirin can kill in a pretty random fashion too - it is just much harder to show an association in these random cases. The risk is low, but there is always some risk with any drug.
Oral contraceptives are one of those interesting drugs where not taking it is more dangerous than taking it (pregnancy is much more dangerous than the pill). If any drug should be available over the counter and heavily subsidised it is oral contraceptives.
