Medi-Collective vs Getskinhelp experience Follow up:
A couple weeks ago, while at moms, I emailed the Medicollective location in Kitchener asking about Siascopy. To date, I have received zero response to my email.
Same day, I downloaded the Getskinhelp app, populated my personal information, which included submitting a photo of my health card (I wasn't overly comfortable doing it, due to security of information concerns, but did so all the same),and used my iPhone to send in 3 photos of my suspicious mole.
I received an invite for a video consultation with a doctor and completed the consultation this morning. The doctor is a plastic surgeon, located in Toronto, he thought that given my history, the mole should be removed and offered up a surgery date of tomorrow. I asked how he was able to arrive at the conclusion that it should be removed. He said given my history, better to cut it out.
At this point I told him that I would follow up with my local dermatologist. Honestly, it felt like he gets paid to cut, so let's cut it out. I'd rather not cut, unless it is needed. (I have had three moles removed from my back over the past 15 years, the first was cancerous, the last two, not).
So, good news is that it was a fairly quick service. All consultation costs were covered by Ohip. If you are in agreement to cutting suspicious moles, they offer a quick service, 2-3 weeks from first contact to completion.
Disappointing that a dermatologist didn't examine my photos and it felt like the decision to cut was a business decision.
I think that the Siascopy route with Mdx offers a better service in that a dermatologist will look at your photos which were taken with a class 2 medical device and provide an unbiased recommendation. Hopefully.
I think MediCollective might still be working out some start up kinks given their lack of response to my email (and others here have posted similar poor initial experiences with them).
I do think that Mdx needs to be more hands on with the Medicollective locations and all other siascopy clinics to make sure all staff are up to speed and providing good service.
In fairness to Mdx, and Paul Ziemer, they treated me excellently and provided top notch, over and above service in getting a siascopy arranged for my mother earlier on (which in the end she declined to pursue).
Conclusion:
In my opinion, Siascopy is the better way to go.
But Mdx should ensure that Siascopy centres offer a choice of packages. Given customers are paying out of pocket, if I only want one mole scanned, there should be a cheaper price for one scan. Currently it's 4 scans for $249, (or $149 with a doctor referral).
Why not also offer a price of $40 or $50 for one scan.