Q&A with ChatRx Founder Dr. Tod Stillson
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Plymouth-based ChatRx will debut its AI-powered telemedicine platform to the public on June 16, offering $20 flat-fee, text-based diagnosis and treatment for 37 common infections without insurance or appointments.
Founded by longtime rural physician Dr. Tod Stillson, the company aims to fill a critical gap in fast, affordable care by combining asynchronous medicine with proprietary AI and an FDA-registered medical device.
Inside INdiana Business spoke with Stillson about his inspiration, the platform’s unique features, its upcoming launch and the broader implications for healthcare access and innovation.
What’s the inspiration behind ChatRx?
I’ve been a practicing rural physician here in northern Indiana for 30 years. Over that time frame, I observed that everyday people had difficulty getting simple, affordable, timely care. People would call me, text me, message me, email me for simple things like UTIs or sinus infections. It was difficult to bring all those patients into the clinic to see them. So I had what I’d call a “friends and family” network.
I experienced that over and over again, and I realized how frustrating it is for patients and consumers alike to call their doctor’s office when they have an illness only to be told, “we can get you in in one to two weeks.” As a patient, you can’t wait one to two weeks when you have strep throat, a bad UTI or whatever it may be. So you end up having to go to urgent care or the ER. There needed to be a better way for consumers to get that care.
So over the years, that has percolated in my mind. A few things began to happen. COVID happened, and telemedicine came on the scene. Secondly, direct-to-consumer medicine also came on the scene. Thirdly, non-insurance based care came on the scene. Lastly, AI came on the scene. AI has brought forth a lot of technology that has helped us. Then the kicker was I decided to retire from my primary care clinic that really consumed my time. So I now had time to develop this product that’s going to help not just my community but the whole nation. That sense of knowing that access to care is limited and that consumers need reliable, trusted care was the inspiration for me.
Stillson speaks about the inspiration behind ChatRx.
When are you launching the product?
We are beginning our roll out on June 16; we’re calling it a public preview. In the tech world, we would consider that a soft launch. We are going to gather additional data and information from the people who sign up to be part of that public preview. We’ll adjust the product based on their input over the next four to six weeks. We want to make sure that we present a very strong product that will help a lot of people. We’re going to roll it out in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. We plan to do a full rollout later this fall as we continue to grow our influence and the product.
What sets ChatRx apart from other telemedicine solutions?
Most telemedicine platforms are based on what we call synchronous visits. That means you schedule an appointment and talk to a doctor or a nurse practitioner in an audio-visual chat. Our product is what’s called asynchronous medicine. That means that you’re using a chat, not audio visual with a doctor or nurse practitioner in real time. We’ve trained our AI agent to diagnose these 37 conditions that we treat. The AI agent assists us with sorting out symptoms and to determine if you qualify for a condition. If you have a qualified condition, that is then sent to me as the treating doctor to assist me in identifying the right treatment for you.
At that point, we get some additional medical history, allergies, medications, medical problems, etc., that all get filtered through. It’s literally like having a doctor in your pocket 24/7. We source the lowest price cash medication in your geographic area. We send it to the pharmacy, and they go pick it up. All that happens within five minutes; that’s asynchronous care. The FDA device that I created is a significant piece of software as a medical device. My background as a pharmacist before becoming a doctor also informed all of this.
It also has a freemium component. I’ve tried to be very aware of what the marketplace needs. Our freemium component is our symptom checker. To find out if you have a condition to be treated is totally free and can be done anywhere in the world by anyone. If you have a qualifying condition that can be treated, that’s when you would pay the $20 we charge for the prescription.
People do things like this for one of two reasons. One is because they got a great business idea and they’re going to go make a whole bunch of money. But the heart of what I am doing is truly about moral ambition. Americans are in a quagmire of health care that’s controlled by big corporations. In my own little way, I wanted to build something very special for consumers, without third parties involved. We are very specialized, we go deep into the world of acute, common infections.
How long did it take to train the AI and what material was used to train the AI?
It’s been a year-long process to train the AI. We’re using Open AI as our source; that’s the agent that we used to train. I chose Open AI because of its diagnostic accuracy in the medical field. Open AI is known to be diagnostically accurate up to 90%. Family physicians average about 75% accuracy. So our product would increase diagnostic accuracy. We’ve worked with large language model developers. Our AI agent is proprietary, sophisticated and unique to us. It has taken a lot of time and energy for me to take all that I know and translate it into an AI agent for the product that we have.
How is ChatRx structured financially for patients?
We are a non-insurance product. Patients can use their Flexible Savings Account or their Health Savings Account to use our product. We will not have any interface with insurance, only cash based. We’ve done that to cut out the middleman and to reduce the cost to the lowest possible amount for the consumer. Literally, the $20 price barely covers our overhead for all the tech stack involved with doing this. The $20 is the professional fee for the prescription. The prescription itself will be a separate fee.
Our symptom checker sorts patients into four categories. One, they have a qualifying condition that we can treat, that would be one of our 37 conditions. They have a non-qualifying condition that requires them to either see a provider in person or a telemedicine visit. Number three, they have a viral condition that doesn’t require a prescription but just needs some supportive care. The fourth is if they have an emergent condition because safety is very important to us. We inform the consumer that they need to urgently be seen in the ER or urgent care for their condition. We also have built into our system the opportunity for work and school notes for the convenience of the consumer.
How is ChatRx addressing data privacy and security?
We are very diligent about data privacy, HIPAA compliance and following all the FTC and FTA regulatory guidelines. We have privacy officers who oversee that and we have worked diligently to make sure that there are significant safeguards built into our product. It’s an amazing world of technology nowadays but it also increases the risk for predators trying to disrupt what good you’re trying to do.
Another element we have is family care. When one family member gets sick, it’s not uncommon for the rest of the family to get sick. So I built this product with family in mind. We have what we call minor dependents and adult dependents that can be added to the users account. It’s a tremendous service that families in America will especially appreciate.
Where has funding for this product come from?
Totally self-funded. This comes back to the moral ambition for me. I have put up my own funds because I believe it’s something of value that will benefit the world. We now have one angel investor that has come on board, but it’s mostly private funds. As we continue to grow and scale up, we anticipate additional funding sources including venture capital groups, etc. But again, that’s to be determined right now. It is all self funded, essentially and privately funded through an angel investor.
What’s the workforce strength currently?
Currently, we have 11 members working for us in various ways, from full time to fractional members. Most of our team is here in the U.S., but some are offshore. At this point, we expect to grow our footprint as we continue to scale our company. We believe the demand from the public will be high because of our beta testing. Consumers have a very strong appetite for this type of product and therefore we anticipate our growth to be quick as well.