Connect2drs

In Mexico, according to the OECD we have the longest workdays, which means at least 43% of the population have to deal with stress and other psychological effects related with work. Recently, the regulation NOM-035 was approved, demanding employers to prepare diagnosis and preventive actions for harassment, as well as for controlling stress, anxiety, and other mental disorders. For this reason, we are offering online consulting through the Connect2drs app, so employers can feel better no matter where they are and whenever they need.

According to the WHO, depression and anxiety have an impact in the global economy of US $1 trillion, so we need to find ways to address the problem not only in Mexico, but in the rest of the world by using technology to provide mental health to the people they need.

Mexico and Costa Rica are the countries with the longest hours at work, which translates to stressful situations day after day. According to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS, in Spanish), 75% of Mexicans suffer from occupational stress, even more than in China and the United States. This stress is caused by their job, financial problems, violence, traffic jams and family related problems, which are common situations happening in every city in the world. 

We want to raise awareness of the importance of mental health, so we want to tackle the problem by providing online psychological consultation, by offering this service to the corporates so their employees can have access to solve their emotional situations, which can be related to their job, family or other circumstances, avoiding traffic jams, as they can use this service from their office, their home or the space they prefer.

We will be working with employees from different corporations, and we did a pilot program in 2018 with specific populations in matter of social impact, migrants. This program included 18 migrants, refugees and returnees and we offered them medical and psychological attention through our Connect2drs platform, which was helpful for them, as they were speaking in their own language and they did not have to look for medical attention in an unknown country.

Connect2drs is a social entrepreneurship that wants to close the gap between doctors and patients by using technology, in order to have a quality health service. Connect2drs is an app in iOs and Android that offers different services as online consulting (telemedicine), digital prescriptions protected by blockchain, in which we are using an open source code so anyone can have access to collaborate. Additionally, we offer medical adherence to remember the patient when they need to take their medicine and when they have their online consultation. At the end of the year, we will have the sale and delivery of medicine.

At the moment, we are working to provide this service in addressing the problem of mental health at job centers, so we can introduce in another stage the general and specialized medical attention to the employees.

Our vision is to transform the way doctors attend their patients, we have noticed that doctors despite their extensive professional and academic career, they are behind technology and in many cases, they prefer to work in a traditional way. For this reason we offer not only the web platform and the app, we are developing Connect2drs Academy, as a tool for medicine schools at Mexican Universities to introduce technology and innovation as part of their curricula, so we can develop this interest and awareness since this academic stage. It is a way in which they can use new technologies, but also for the development of new projects in matters of health.

Additionally, we are working with partners from private, public and civil sector to introduce social projects for vulnerable populations, as well as to propose health policy and regulations that can improve the present system.

We see technology as a solution, but we need knowledge and collaboration to boost new ways of solving health problems in the urban and rural areas.

We use technology to close the gap between medical attention and patients, we make it easier to enable a relationship doctor-patient, we cut distances by using native applications, a clean, easy and friendly user interface. Our present technology includes a web platform, an app in iOS and Android, as well as Blockchain, Python, Django 2, JavaScript, Jquery, HTML5, CSS3, Postgress DB, Docker and Microsoft Azure Containers.

We believe in technology and its applications in the field of health, for that reason we would like to continue integrating and growing technological infrastructure, implementing big data and artificial intelligence for the analysis of data and statistics, as well as the link with sports or health devices. In the next months, we will start modeling artificial neural networks to gather data generated through our platform, so we can have a better knowledge of doctor and patient behavior, trends and sickness.

According to the WHO, it is necessary to find new solutions in which the health system can reach more people. In Mexico we have a high concentration of specialized doctors in certain areas of the city, this means urban residents have to waste a lot of time moving from their home or office for getting medical attention, sometimes they even have to lose a day job, in addition to traffic jams. For this reason, we are aware of the necessity of closing this gap of distance through technology, as well as making health services accesible to people. First, we are attending employees by providing our service of general physicians, psychologists and nutritionists to corporates, it is proven that this type of services increase productivity. Second, we are providing an accesible health service for vulnerable populations, as poor people, migrants and refugees through social programs in collaboration with key stakeholders. Third, we offer our app for urban residents who want to avoid long distances, reduce their carbon footprint and need a quality health service, in which they can speak to the doctors in a trustworthy, efficient way, as well as having medical prescriptions to get the medicine they need.

At the moment, we do not have a number, but in one month we are planning to have more than 200 people, as we already have a program with refugees in the State of Mexico. In the first year, we are planning more than one thousand people, and in 5 years, more than 10,000 people.

In Mexico, our goal is to achieve a quality health service, so one way to achieve this is by using technology to bring doctors with patients. In this first year, we expect to have more than 700 medical advisory interactions in the first year on the platform so that we can have a sustainable company, as well as generate strategic alliances with hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and pharmaceuticals for the implementation and use of the platform. Similarly, this objective is based on the possibility of generating sustainable growth to continue developing social impact projects, which are not totally free and can provide a low-cost medical assistance service to vulnerable populations, especially migrants, returnees and refugees, as in the new government the  popular insurance has disappeared. 

In five years, we want to be a social company that has affected in the public and private sphere the life of people, especially vulnerable populations. We want to create a strong health entrepreneurial ecosystem that can focus on solving problems from our country with its different applications, as well as the creation of strong policy that can improve our health system. Additionally, we will position ourselves in the American market by introducing our app into the latin migrants, just to start.

In our case, there is a financial challenge.It is necessary to generate approximately 9,000 USD of flow for services and investment to achieve profits in the first year of operation as a social enterprise. 

Also, we need to raise awareness of the importance of using new technologies with the doctors, as they are not used to do so. 

We will tackle the financial challenge by selling our services to doctors, but also to companies. And the barrier with doctors, we created Connect2drs Academy, as a way in which we can introduce them to topics related to technology and innovation.

4 full-time

6 part-time

Marcela Valiente, CEO Connect2drs (full-time), she leads the strategy and plans of the company, connect with the internal team and externally communicate what Connect2drs does. https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelavaliente/

Rigoberto Aramburo, Medical Manager (part-time), he is a plastic surgeon and he manages everything related with medical issues, as well as any inconvenience with them. https://www.linkedin.com/in/raramburo/

Vicente Perez, CTO (part-time), he develops and ensures that technological resources are efficient and safe. https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-vicente-p%C3%A9rez-l%C3%B3pez-b0a05760/

Andres Lores, CMO (part-time), he generates the image of the company, creates visual and communication tools for the generation of sales. https://www.linkedin.com/in/andr%C3%A9s-lores-a30070146/

Isabel López Estrada, CCO and Director of Social Innovation (full-time), she defines and implements the company's participation in social programs, as well as she manages the sales strategy by creating strategic and commercial partnerships. https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabel-lopezestrada/

Jonathan Espino, https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-javier-espino-garc%C3%ADa-34474b94/, as the financial director and Daniel Espino as the legal advisor, both of them as part-time members. We also have Noe Cruz who is a full-stack developer jr and Ulrich Fuentes as project manager.

At the moment, we are working with strategic alliances in legal matters such as Centro Mexico Pro Bono, they are helping us by providing specialized lawyers to review the topic of digital prescriptions, as well as reviewing our legal documents as terms and conditions, and privacy policy for patients and doctors.

In technology matters, we are working with IBM to analyze possible solutions for new business models related with neural networks, as well as social projects related with migrants in Mexico and USA.

In academic matters, we started a relationship with Universidad Anahuac for collaborating with their Digital Health Institute as well as with their volunteer network. In addition, we will be working with UNAM by working with their medicine students.

In commercial matters, we are working with different agencies and law firms to help doctors related with marketing, branding, social media, legal advice, among others.

Connect2Drs have different business models.

B2B 

Medical Care by a General Doctor online for 30 min

$3.5 dollars + Tax 

Distributed between the doctor and for the expenses of C2D

+ % of sales if sold any medicine

Medical Care by a Specialist Doctor online for 30 min

20% per service to the specialist

+% of sales if sold any medicine

Direct sale of medicines 

B2C

Semi-white label of rent of the platform to pharmaceuticals and pharmacies.

Government, Enterprises & Foundations

Generation of social projects - the costs are at 40-50% less.

We will be selling our service to doctors, corporations and pharma. In the first case, they will pay a commission of 20%, in the second case, we will offer a package to attend psychological effects and in the third one, we will offer a space for pharmaceuticals to sell their medicines.

We would love to become part of an international community that is trying to solve global problems from a local perspective, we can work in different solutions by having a personalized support, as well as some funding to keep going with new ways of providing health.

As an interdisciplinary team, we are aware of the importance of working with different approaches, and as a social company, we keep thinking that we can be have a for-profit model that can grow by itself, but can also improve the lives of people in Mexico and in the rest of the world.

We want to work with international and public organizations, as well as with academic institutions to keep growing the community.

We started to use artificial intelligence, and specifically in neural networks for gathering information in matters of health. At this moment, we started a collaboration with IBM to find the best way to do it.

As a woman CEO, I believe in building new solutions, for this reason I created Connect2drs.

In Mexico, the access to the health system is a challenge of exceptional dimensions. Nowadays it is necessary to improve the quality of the medical service in the country, create jobs for doctors, generate new technologies in the health sector and especially shorten the access gap to health. Today in Mexico, the legal system of a civil society organization is no longer an adequate method given the circumstances of a new government, and even greater is the fact that internationally the figure of social enterprise must begin to adapt and reproduce. My whole life's struggle has been to generate a change and a social impact, but always with a perspective of economic generation, without creating welfare processes. I want to achieve the generation of the first social technological health company in Mexico, I want to achieve that we can save lives, create jobs, create new technology or systems, I want to achieve a real impact in my country and in the world.