As a physician, I understand firsthand how vital it is for healthcare providers to collaborate seamlessly. When specialists and referring doctors work together efficiently, patients benefit from faster, more comprehensive care. Yet, despite good intentions, the traditional curbside consultation—a quick, informal exchange of expertise often done in hallways or over the phone—has long posed challenges. These interactions, while valuable, are rarely documented and lack a structured system, leaving room for inefficiency, lost revenue and missed opportunities for optimized care.
Enter DocSide, a platform designed to reimagine the curbside consultation. By bringing structure and innovation to these interactions, DocSide empowers healthcare professionals to connect more effectively, share expertise conveniently, and deliver outstanding patient outcomes. Through secure and efficient tools, the platform transforms the ways we collaborate as specialists, referring providers, and care teams. Here’s how DocSide is making a difference.
Enhancing Communication for Better Collaboration
At the core of DocSide is its ability to bridge the gap between specialists and referring doctors by offering a HIPAA-compliant platform tailored to healthcare professionals’ needs. Historically, curbside consultations often involved hastily relayed oral advice or fragmented email threads—far from ideal in today’s fast-paced healthcare settings. With DocSide, that changes.
Clear, Streamlined Interactions
DocSide enables referring providers to initiate consultations with just a few clicks, sharing clinical information securely and directly with consulting specialists. Specialist providers, in turn, can quickly review the case, offer their recommendations, and document their insights—all within minutes. What’s exceptional is the way DocSide fosters structured, documented exchanges while maintaining the casual, convenient nature clinicians value.
Beyond internal communication, the platform also allows healthcare systems to expand their professional networks. Whether you’re connecting within your own practice, working across departments, or collaborating with consultants across different organizations, DocSide makes information exchange, referrals, and interdisciplinary care simpler.
The result? Faster access to specialty expertise, better communication between providers, and fewer drops in the chain of care.
Evidence of Faster Solutions
Data from e-consult systems shows how valuable this approach can be. For example, 87% of e-consults are completed in less than 10 minutes. Imagine the potential impact when the time spent chasing consults shrinks dramatically, allowing providers to focus on patient care. With DocSide, this concept is brought to life in an intuitive, technology-driven way.
Optimizing Care While Reducing Costs
For many healthcare systems, the cost of care remains a significant concern. Traditional outpatient referrals can be expensive—not to mention stressful for patients. DocSide helps tackle both challenges through its innovative model, saving time, money, and unnecessary office visits.
Lower Costs, Higher Efficiency
Studies have demonstrated that systems incorporating e-consults achieve remarkable reductions in the total cost of care—ranging from 36% to 83%. This happens because not every patient needs an in-person visit for specialty care. For example, between April 2018 and October 2020, out of over 7,000 e-consults performed for adult healthcare specialties, only 2.5% of those resulted in follow-up in-person visits within 30 days.
DocSide works on a similar principle, directing specialty care resources where they’re most needed while reducing avoidable expenses. Referring doctors can get answers to their questions and guidance for narrow clinical topics without requiring their patients to drive across town—or logistically juggle multiple appointments.
A Win for Patients and Providers
The benefits are far-reaching, extending to provider organizations, payors, and individual physicians alike. Patients avoid unnecessary travel or time off work, all while receiving safe, high-quality care. Providers, on the other hand, spend fewer resources managing avoidable referrals and building trust with patients by expediting care decisions.
The Veterans Health Administration offers another illuminating case study. Between 2012 and 2018, their adoption of e-consult systems saved an estimated 170 million miles in travel distances for patients, creating direct savings of $46 million while enhancing equitable access to specialty care. Imagine replicating that level of impact within your own practice using DocSide.
Empowering Doctors to Earn for Their Expertise
One significant limitation of traditional curbside consultations is their informal nature. These interactions, while helpful, are rarely accounted for in terms of revenue. Specialists provide valuable recommendations, but their time often goes uncompensated unless in-person appointments occur. DocSide changes that narrative by recognizing and formalizing curbside consult activity.
Capture Revenue for the Work You Already Do
Through DocSide, consulting specialists can document their assessments easily and generate charges for interprofessional consultations. Data from similar systems reveals that these consultations hold a meaningful value—typically 0.7 work Relative Value Units (wRVU) per case, which translates to between $110 and $150 in charges per encounter. By enabling professionals to capture charges on work they’re already doing, DocSide transforms “informal” exchanges into tangible recognition and financial reward.
For healthcare organizations, this has profound implications. Not only can it reduce economic leakage, but it can also incentivize specialists to spend more time delivering thoughtful guidance to their referring colleagues.
Cultivating Joy in Medicine
At a time when physician burnout is at an all-time high, DocSide provides a solution that addresses the very essence of why most of us entered medicine—to help patients thrive. By streamlining workflows and eliminating unnecessary roadblocks, the platform allows clinicians to work smarter, not harder. Referring providers gain valuable access to timely insights, while specialists can focus their efforts on problems that demand their expertise.
Eliminating redundant tasks brings focus back to what matters most—patient outcomes. And when meaningful collaboration becomes the norm, it creates an environment where professionals rediscover their passion for medicine.
Driving a Broader Vision
At DocSide, we believe that healthcare must become more equitable, efficient, and accessible. A small but critical step toward that goal lies in improving the way we connect with fellow clinicians. By creating a platform where millions of Qualified Healthcare Professionals can collaborate seamlessly, we’re making it possible to deliver exceptional care to any patient, at any time, from anywhere.
A Call to Action for Healthcare Providers
The future of healthcare depends on how we adapt to challenges and leverage technology to improve the way we work. DocSide is more than just a platform; it’s a mindset shift, a step toward better collaboration, and a move toward elevating the care we provide.
Now is the time to take action. Whether you’re a specialist looking to connect with referring doctors in your network or a primary care provider seeking timely specialty input, DocSide gives you the tools needed to make those interactions count. Together, we can break down silos, reduce inefficiencies, and create a system that works better for everyone—the patient, the specialist, and the referring provider alike.
Join the DocSide today—and experience collaborative care reimagined. Because at the end of the day, we’re all here to ensure patients get the best care possible.
