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Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
Steve Alexander, Associate Editor
Bud Wayne, Editorial Executive
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HealthLynked has created the first nationwide network that connects patients, doctors and their data all in one platform to improve the healthcare of its patient members providing personalized healthcare recommendations.
Dr. Michael T. Dent
Founder, Chairman & CEO
HealthLynked (OTC:HLYK)
Interview conducted by:
Bud Wayne, Editorial Executive, CEOCFO Magazine
Published – December 16, 2019
CEOCFO: Dr. Dent, what is the concept behind HealthLynked?
Dr. Dent: HealthLynked connects patients, doctors and their data to provide personalized healthcare recommendations to our patient members. The company has also submitted patents on its technologies—hardware and software—that help build relationships between doctors and patients. Healthcare delivery and medical information access is very fragmented and in the past fifteen years, since Electronic Medical Records entered the market space, there have been over a thousand different software systems to produce medical records but these systems are competing for the same market and typically do not connect with other competitors’ systems.
Medical records sit within physician practices and hospitals, and when patients move, their records do not move with them. This inaccessibility of medical information creates a number of problems within healthcare for a patient that might be admitted to an emergency room or who sees a different physician. So not having information available in a timely fashion for healthcare providers can lead to poor outcomes. Our goal is to solve this problem and go beyond that to improve healthcare for all our members.
CEOCFO: What have you developed?
Dr. Dent: We have created a platform where we have over 800,000 physicians, every doctor in the US is in the HealthLynked Directory. We have started connecting patients to those healthcare providers, and we developed patented technology around how we do that. We have integrated smartphone devices into our systems, so that a patient can stay connected to their medical information, find local providers, book appointments and check in all through their mobile devices.
Our patient access hub (PAH) technology allows patients in the waiting room to connect to a secure Wi-
CEOCFO: How do you get around the fact that so many of the healthcare record systems now are flawed and difficult to use and do not have the information that many people think should be there?
Dr. Dent: HealthLynked’s goals are expansive to improve patient care and care management. What we know is that patients see a physician for one of two reasons: either because they have healthcare problems, or because they want to make sure they are ok and that there’s nothing wrong with them.
Medical records, until 10 -
HealthLynked is one of the first companies to provide a patient focused electronic healthcare record system, so we are moving those records from the physician’s office to the patient’s domain, where they can control those records and move them as needed.
Immediate access to health records can be lifesaving in situations such where you might be unconscious and unable to communicate your medical information to a healthcare provider such as in a car accident, stroke or heart attack. If you are traveling away from home, the treating doctor will not have access to your medical information and this could impact the quality of medical care you receive. In a system where your medical records are connected to your account and move with you, doctors can have immediate access to your medical records and this can save lives. That is one thing that everyone recognizes is a problem in healthcare right now.
CEOCFO: How are you encouraging doctors to work with HealthLynked?
Dr. Dent: Physicians aren’t looking to add more to their already busy schedules. We know that we need to align our services to the interest of physicians. These areas are to improve patient care though care management and care coordination. Secondly to not add any additional work to the physician who is already overwhelmed trying to keep up with all the paperwork and forms needed for medical billing and lastly to improve his practice performance and drive additional revenues. For Physicians who are preferred providers, we typically improve their practice revenues around $100,000 per year though patient engagement and retention.
CEOCFO: How are you putting the pieces together and getting this all off the ground?
Dr. Dent: In our system, we now have over half a million patient members, mostly in Florida. Anybody can go in and create a profile. They can load their healthcare records in our cloud-
We have been growing our patient network mostly through our in-
As we are working to improve the healthcare of our patient members, we will be participating in care management programs called ACO’s (Accountable Care Organizations). ACO’s take a population of patients and make sure that they follow up with their physicians, do their routine screenings and stay out of the hospital.
CEOCFO: How do you generate revenues from doctors and patients?
Dr. Dent: Physicians can claim their profile for free and update their information in our nationwide provider directory. In-
Other revenues come from our patient members who can for $1 per month or $10 per year become “Lynked” members. Lynked members get 1GB upgraded data storage and access to significant discounts through our partnership programs.
We expect our partnership programs to generate significant revenues and significant value to our members by offering services that are associated with healthy lifestyles such as gym memberships, healthy eating and other healthcare services.
CEOCFO: Are people reluctant to store their data where theoretically somebody could get it?
Dr. Dent: Access to Healthcare information is regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HealthLynked operates within the rules for HIPAA when we collect patient information from healthcare providers and when patients have possession of their records, called a Personal Healthcare Record. Part of our process is to provide our patient members more control over their data and privacy. Just like our QwikCheck application, that allows patients to check in with their smart phones and not have their full name called out in the waiting room when the doctor is ready to see them.
People care most about their financial information being out there. We separate personal information like home address, Social Security, and date of birth from their healthcare information that we have on file. Members are given extra protection that if an account was ever accessed without permission their financial information will not be connected to them.
CEOCFO: What has changed in your approach as more and more people are using HealthLynked?
Dr. Dent: Well, remember we have two users: our patient members and our providers. What we have learned from our providers is that they prefer to test out the system to see the value, before they are willing to pay. Therefore, we have adjusted our sales model to incorporate this information and this change has been great for growing our provider base.
CEOCFO: Are you seeking funding, investment, partnerships?
Dr. Dent: Yes, we are a small public company on the OTC, trading about $0.16-
We are looking to partner with companies that offer services that promote healthy living and lifestyles as well as provide other medical services. Gym memberships, healthy eating, sport centers, medical supplies purchases, etc. are just some of the areas of strategic interest. We are working with Quest Diagnostics, and we have already incorporated a directory of all of their draw center locations throughout the Southeast USA.
We are raising $5 million for our next three acquisitions. We are targeting to uplist on the NASDAQ in the next 10 months and our acquisition strategy is an important part of that.
CEOCFO: With so much opportunity, how do you decide where to focus?
Dr. Dent: With limited financial resources, we have kept our focus on developing software that can meet our objectives without developing a lot of other tools that we know will be coming in the near future. If we had more capital, we would be able to grow even faster. It is a very lean development team and executive team. Having done this before, in the early stages of the company, you have to be careful where you focus your efforts to get the best results.
Right now, we are growing our network of providers and patient members because that is where our true value will reside. Ultimately revenue is important but like all social platforms, developing the user base comes first. That is where our focus is now, and we do not want to hinder that. One of the things we have been very successful at is keeping our cost down while growing our user base.
CEOCFO: How are you reaching patients?
Dr. Dent: The majority of our patients have joined our network through our physician members. Once physicians join the network, they can reach out to their patients via email and let their patients know they are now an in-
CEOCFO: How user friendly is your product?
Dr. Dent: I have practiced medicine as an OBGYN physician for over 25 years and I know dealing with healthcare records can be overwhelming to patients and we understand that. Patients want their doctors to handle all that and not have to worry about it. Unfortunately, that is not a realistic solution if you really want to make sure you get the best care. We have tried to make our process as simple and as pain free as possible. Once a patient sees one of our providers all they have to do is simply through their mobile device select the provider they are seeing and we take it from there. We work behind the scenes to collect the patient’s information into their personal healthcare record archive. We start immediately providing guidance to our members, making recommendations based on their age, gender and the information they provide. As we get feedback from our members on specific medical questions, we continue to evaluate their medical information and keep them on track with appointment and routine screening reminders.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about your 3rd Quarter earnings?
Dr. Dent: Right now, we have two divisions of HealthLynked, our network services and our healthcare service divisions. We have continued to grow our revenues in our healthcare service division as we grow our network. We have been focused on expanding our in-
Network revenue will come after 6 months as we introduce our services to physicians, and they have time to utilize our services, get introduced to the value we bring to their practices and the other services we offer to our preferred providers.
Going forward we are looking to grow our healthcare service division by adding in a few of the primary care specialties such as pediatrics, family medicine, internal medicine and urology. These specialties will help us better understand the patients’ needs and allow us to write more comprehensive algorithms around patient care management for our patient members.
CEOCFO: Are there a number of companies looking to make somewhat similar connections? How is your system better and what is it doing differently?
Dr. Dent: Most of the competitors that we look at in the market place focus on one area of patient interaction such as online scheduling (Zoc Doc), online marketing for physicians (Patient POP), medical records for billing purposes (EMR’s), telemedicine (Teledoc), or data mining, but there is not a company like HealthLynked offering a comprehensive platform.
What we have created is a healthcare ecosystem, where a patient can put in their personal health records, connect to their doctors, book appointments, and have their personal health records that move with them.
We then provide personalized healthcare recommendations to our patient members. Patients are often not aware of specific screening recommendations and they often forget to schedule follow up appointments.
CEOCFO: Why pay attention to HealthLynked?
Dr. Dent: Healthcare in a multibillion-
HealthLynked is a healthcare ecosystem, where patients can upload their medical information, connect to their doctors, book appointments and share their medical information with the healthcare providers they choose. Once a patient creates an account, we start providing healthcare recommendations that are specific to that individual. “We are the first company to act as a healthcare consultant to patients to improve care at the fundamental level”
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