Telehealth startups focus on complex chronic diseases

If her neurologist moved to China, Lauren Stiles says she would follow him there. “There are so few doctors doing this,” said the New York-based president of the patient advocacy group Dysautonomia International.

In her world, informed, experienced specialists – especially in the field of the autonomic nervous system – are extremely rare. Telehealth can open doors for patients looking for a doctor who understands them. Stiles had to travel hundreds of miles to find an expert at the Cleveland Clinic who could diagnose her (it took her two years to find out she has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, and Sjögren’s syndrome). When that last doctor moved to Virginia, she followed him.

But often, Stiles has questions that don’t require a twelve-hour road trip to answer. She would like to call him and make a telephone appointment.