Zipnosis is a Minneapolis-based organization offering a telehealth platform for a wide range of services, from behavioral health to specialty and surgical care. Pearce discusses the benefits of virtual medicine, including cost savings, and what the market needs to do to adapt to the influx of patients during and after the pandemic.
Q. How did Zipnosis get its start?
I started it 12 years ago with the idea that cell phones would be the clinic of the future, to design a new way to connect patients and providers. I was about a decade too early. Our business today is a software company. We don’t run a network or employ doctors; we just license our technology to them and they put their brand on top of it.
It’s technology that enables virtual care through their entire ecosystem. If you look at the name Zipnosis, it’s a strategy. Zip is bringing a consumer-grade experience into healthcare. People shop on Amazon, book a flight online, and we want to bring those consumer experiences into healthcare, which is about 10 years behind at all times. Nosis is an economic thesis. We wanted to drive the transactional cost of healthcare so when someone interacts with a physician it is as close to zero as possible.