This afternoon New-York-based startup Beam launched its digital health platform that lets providers bill and connect patients to virtual care at Health 2.0 in Santa Clara, California. The platform bills itself as the first pay-as-you-scale digital health platform and caters to smaller providers looking to go digital. 

"Patients today are immersed in an on-demand world, and they have come to expect the same level of service of their primary care," Sas Ponnapalli, CEO of Beam, said in a statement. "Appointment-based care is gone. In order to be successful in this modern world, small practice doctors have to keep up with patient demands. We want to empower these doctors to sustain and grow their practices, without having to decide between independence and joining a larger practice.”

The platform aims to enable communication channels between doctors and patients. It lets patients and providers make calls on the phone, while still protecting the providers number, send text, and hold video chats. Additionally, it was also designed to help doctors bill insurance companies. 

“Coming from a family of physicians, I've seen the impact of a primary care physician in a patient's wellbeing. We see current telemedicine services as putting efficiency over care, matching patients with anonymous doctors,” Alfonso Enriquez, cofounder and head of product for the company, wrote to MobiHealthNews in an email. “We don't want to compromise the relationship between the primary care provider and their patient. Our goal is to enhance this connection.”

The startup claims that it will work for all specialities. Its website lists everything from dermatology to OBGYNs and dental to podiatrists as specialties that it can be applied to. The company was formed from the idea of giving small providers a way to incorporate digital. 

“When Sas and I met, we were working on our independent companies. Given his background in healthcare and my background in tech, we discussed creating a simple solution for patients and physicians, while creating a transparent system for small practices to earn revenue,” Enriquez wrote in an email. “We believe in giving small practices tools to remain competitive against urgent care clinics and other telemedicine services.”

Now that the platform has officially launched the company is looking to the future. 

“We have many physicians who are excited for our launch and are partnering with us for our pilot program,” Enriquez wrote in an email. “Our goal in the next quarter is to continue these partnerships; while tapping into various distribution channels to scale our model. But most importantly, we want to deliver an outstanding experience for our early partners, allowing them to what they do best, take care of their patients.”