An app that makes this semi-grizzled pioneer feel…not quite on board the wagon. HeyDoctor is not for horses, but for those who Text to Live. Yes, all you need to do if you feel under the weather is to download the app, text the doc, get your diagnosis, and prescription. Like that. No need to comb your hair and wash your face for that video visit. According to the website, you can get anything from a UTI to acne to erectile dysfunction diagnosed and treated. Out of birth control? Handled. You can get tests ordered up for blood typing, HIV, and metabolic analysis. Not happy with your lash thickness and growth? Here’s the topical med for you! Trying to quit smoking? Done. All you need do is text one of their in-house board-certified physicians and live in one of 19 states where it’s offered.

For our UK Readers, this is a service with similarities to Babylon Health‘s chatbot service but without the decision support ladder–it goes straight to the doctor.

They claim on the website that most visits are five minutes and under $20 in cost, plus affiliations with leading medical centers like UCSF and Georgetown, although this Editor doubts that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a ‘healthcare organization’ in the same category.

MedCityNews confirms their playbook, for now, is B2C, but the San Francisco-based founders are considering partnering with health systems. According to Crunchbase, funding so far is seed from the two founders, Brendan Levy, MD, a SF-based family medicine practitioner, and Rohit Malhotra, an attorney. LinkedIn counts three employees.

So why not on board the Conestoga? While the convenience is very attractive, there’s also the opportunity for misdiagnosis–the kind of thing we used to worry about with telemedicine. Does the app secure the texts for privacy? Many of these conditions aren’t hangnails–HIV and UTIs come to mind. Oddly, photo upload isn’t mentioned–important with acne. Testimonials point to convenient prescription renewals, but that information can be falsified–easy to do with text. Identity too with smartphones can be faked. A video consult also permits the doctor to see the patient and pick up at least some physical signs of illness. Also not inspiring confidence: a website that crashed when I looked for FAQs and had a chatbot named Brendan (same face as Dr. Levy’s) constantly popping up after X’ing him out. To this Editor, it feels like some verification and diagnostic layers are…missing.