Just for kids: Newcomer KixCare aims to build pediatric care capacity with doctors' 'discretionary time'

A virtual care platform focused solely on pediatric services expanded into Quebec this week, just a few months after it launched in Ontario. KixCare—whose founding group includes Medisys Health Group founder Dr. Sheldon Elman—now counts 20 pediatricians from Ontario and 10 from Quebec among its platform's service providers. “All of our practitioners have jobs elsewhere so it’s a really a reflection of how can we use our practitioners’ discretionary time to be able to add capacity,” Dr. Harley Eisman, co-founder and chief medical officer at KixCare told The Medical Post. “For pediatricians, we are super flexible in terms of our scheduling. (Working with us) is not meant to interfere with what they’re doing.” Pediatric specialists in allied services—such as mental health, concussion treatment, sleep consulting, lactation consulting and speech-language pathology—are also accessible through KixCare. So far, about 3,000 families have used the service, said KixCare CEO Daniel Warner. “It’s harder to come by in-person pediatrician appointments, and hospitals are stretched with everything that’s transpiring,” he said. “We want to be there for Canadian families seven days a week to take some pressure off the existing system. It does appear we’re diverting a good number of visits that would have otherwise ended up in emergency rooms.” Through KixCare, families can get care for babies and kids as old as 18. Appointments with pediatricians are covered by provincial health insurance while services provided by pediatric specialists are paid privately. What makes KixCare especially suitable for pediatric care is its videoconference-only delivery, said Warner, as opposed to other telemedicine techniques. “Our platform is face-to-face, always a virtual visit,” he said. “We’ve seen other virtual care platforms that may have an over-reliance on phone or text, but there are certain nuances that need to be picked up on when you’re assessing a child—or an adult for that matter—for the very first time, let alone for subsequent visits.” Read: App detects predispositions to cancer in children Pediatricians and pediatric specialists who want to be part of the KixCare platform must go through an application and vetting process led by Dr. Eisman, a pediatric emergency physician and medical director of pediatric emergency services at Montreal Children’s Hospital. “We wanted to put something together with niche pediatric expertise and be as comprehensive as possible for patients and their families,” he said. “So much of pediatrics is counselling, is advice, is listening to parents of families, also seeing the child as well—it’s a specific domain of medicine which is very amenable to telemedicine.” Decreasing wait times by providing pediatric care virtually is an important goal for KixCare, said Dr. Eisman. “A child who has waited six hours in the waiting room will often seem much sicker than they really are, so part of the genius behind virtual care is taking away geography and being able to better match provider and parents and decreasing wait times for that visit,” he said. “It certainly enhances care and I think we’re better able to focus on the problem and not on the extraneous things that are sometimes created by waiting.” Warner said KixCare plans to expand into other parts of the country, with the ultimate goal of providing virtual pediatric to the estimated eight million children in Canada. The company also expects to roll out a device that families can use at home to help their virtual care providers assess and diagnose their children. “It’s a pretty transformational products that enables you to get an in-clinic-quality experience–or close to it–from the comfort of your home, whether it’s to check ears, nose, throat or heartbeat,” said Warner, who declined to give further details. “That level of innovation is part of our roadmap.” Read: An old medical technique used in a novel way has saved a new life

Just for kids: Newcomer KixCare aims to build pediatric care capacity with doctors' 'discretionary time'

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