The college lifestyle – famous for hectic schedules, late-night study sessions and 2 a.m. pizza – has never gone hand-in-hand with good health.
But today’s college students are the least likely generation to go to a primary care doctor. Only 55 percent of Generation Z have a primary care physician, compared to two thirds of millennials and 76 percent of Generation X, according to a 2019 Digital Health Consumer Survey. Meanwhile, a report last year found that 1.7 million college students remain uninsured.
Campuses are increasingly turning to telemedicine – online health services – as a solution.
Telemedicine is “expanding the reach of the health system to capture patients who wouldn’t otherwise engage,” said Dr. Bradley Younggren, chief medical officer of the Seattle-based telemedicine start-up 98point6. “We need to find new and creative ways to get those patients to reengage with primary care.”
98point6 partnered with Ohio Wesleyan University to provide students with free telemedicine services and plans to work with two more schools in the fall. Patients text with an AI bot, which puts them in touch with an appropriate 98point6 doctor. The entire session can be conducted over text or the doctor can switch to a video call, if necessary.
“Students are definitely comfortable using our service,” Younggren said. “They’re used to using text as a medium to communicate. They use it every day of their lives.”
Telemedicine is also better suited to students’ busy academic schedules, he added. They can get answers to health questions “while they’re on the move – between classes [or] on the bus.”
