DOCTOR ON CALL
College campus health care for women just got easier thanks to technology — and it’s available 24/7
A S the new semester starts and workloads mount, so students’ anxiety levels increase as well. Luckily, staying healthy on campus is now available at the click of a button.
Maven Campus (MavenClinic.com) which launched this month is a specialized on-demand online health service for female college students and recent grads that offers access to same-day video appointments and private text messaging with doctors (mainly internists, pediatricians and OB-GYNs), nurse practitioners and mental health providers. The service offers advice, diagnoses and some prescription meds.
The subscriptionbased platform and app was founded by CEO Katherine Ryder, a digital health journalistturned-venture capitalist who recognized the lack of products built for the college-bound female demographic.
The service is a new branch of the Maven brand, which launched in New York in April 2015. Solely for women, the online health service has grown nationally, signing nearly 700 providers to its network, and counts tens of thousands of customers, says the entrepreneur.
A subscription to Maven Campus costs $300 annually, or $45 month-to-month, and gives consumers unlimited 24/7 access to on-demand care. And, aside from being convenient, it can also be a useful adjunct to existing healthcare plans.
Legally, Maven’s providers cannot prescribe controlled substances, but medications including antibiotics, birth control and anti-viral flu drugs are permissible.
Grace Billiter recently recognized this value after subscribing to Maven. Originally from New York, the urban studies major is currently a senior at the College of Wooster in Ohio.
“Being on campus can get stressful, especially when picking out classes and during finals. I suffer a bit from anxiety and see a mental health specialist weekly. I e-mailed support at Maven and they matched me with someone for a trial appointment. I liked it and kept booking my 40-minute appointments,” says Billiter. “It’s so easy. I can sit in my dorm room and we can video chat.”
If you’re unsure if you’ve got strep or the flu, especially during peak seasonal outbreaks, “Maven is a step above Googling your symp- toms and below going to see a doctor in person,” says Billiter. “You can use its free forum to post a basic question, and a specialist will answer it with validated and legitimate knowledge. At our student health clinic on campus, the doctors only come in twice a week and book up quickly. Nurses are great, but if I need to see a physician, I’m usually waiting a week or two.”
A concern often faced by female college students is birth control. With Maven’s network, such worries are eliminated. In fact, birth control is the number one prescription on Maven.
“Fordham University doesn’t even offer birth control ,” says Ryder. “We make it convenient and comfortable to get new prescriptions, refills and advice on side effects,” she says.
In addition to experiencing higher rates of depression and anxiety in college than men, women are disproportionately affected by eating disorders, says Ryder. And sexually transmitted infections (STIs) also raise lots of questions on Maven’s anonymous forum.
For those concerned about privacy, Maven is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant, says Ryder.
“We don’t share data with third parties. Our video sessions are not recorded. Private messages are behind lock and key. It’s the ultimate level of privacy,” adds Ryder.