Samsung to Make Clinic Visits Less Necessary with Doctor Consultations via Video Chat

Technology is a wonderful thing since it can make many things possible, including paying a visit to a physical clinic to see a doctor less necessary. At least this is what Samsung wants to achieve with its partnership with the startup Babylon. The goal is to make medical consultations via video chat more mainstream and more accessible.

Babylon had actually already formed a relationship with the NHS in the U.K., which has allowed it to offer what’s called “GP at Hand” to users. This is basically where booking a consultation with a medical professional can be done online through video chat. The South Korean tech giant formed a partnership with the startup to have this feature preinstalled in its future smartphones, the Financial Times reports.

The partnership is intended to expand the reach of this feature both by getting it into the hands of more people and using the substantially larger presence of Samsung to market the option. Not that the prospect of being able to skip the long wait in a clinic lounge wouldn’t be enough to convince many users to make use of the service in the first place.

As Engadget notes, however, this service will not be free of charge. Since this is going to be a doctor’s appointment with an actual medical professional who will offer real medical diagnosis, it will come with a subscription fee of 50 pounds (US$67) for one year.

Users can also choose to pay for appointments on a per-schedule basis, but they will need to pay 25 pounds (US$33) each time. Looking at those figures, it’s not difficult to see that the subscription service would be the more sensible option.

Babylon intends to expand its service globally and has already begun to do so through its partnership with the Chinese messaging platform WeChat. This move was met with heavy criticisms as the service is already being accused of cherry-picking cases where patients are easier to diagnose.