Surgeon’s free app links patients, docs, hospitals

BY STEVE MOCARSKY

A health care tech company founded by a local surgeon is offering a free app that connects patients with doctors and hospitals online using telemedicine for free during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Shiv Nikam, a vascular surgeon who also holds a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia Business School, said Mundaii had been in development for close to five years.

“We did not think (the need for it) was going to come up so rapidly. The board made it free for everybody because of the coronavirus situation and the need for social distancing,” Nikam, of Jenkins Twp., said.

Mundaii is a web-based free-market platform that enables patients to access medical opinions from health care providers. Patients can search through participating providers such as family doctors, specialists and dentists, and reach out to them to ask medical questions.

Patients can use the platform on a computer, smartphone or tablet to email, text message and videoconference with their doctors, and they can use it to invite their doctor to access Mundaii free if their doctor isn’t already a user.

Although the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has relaxed medical privacy rules during the pandemic and is allowing health care providers to use apps such as Skype and FaceTime to communicate with patients, Nikam said some physicians might not be comfortable using those apps because they are not compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects patient privacy.

Mundaii is already HIPAA-compliant to protect patient privacy, said Nikam, the company’s president and CEO.

The platform can also be used for consultations across hospitals.

“The doctor can be in Scranton, the patient can be in Wilkes-Barre and the hospital can be in Philadelphia, and all three can have a virtual visit using mundaii.com,” Nikam said.

Patients can also upload and store their medical records, including their medical/surgical history, list of medications, CT scans, X-rays, MRIs and more, on a secure cloud and give their doctor access to whichever records they choose.

“They can build this medical database over a lifetime,” Nikam said.