After coming under fire from critics regarding data security last year, Doctolib finds itself once again at the heart of a debate around the verification of health professionals.
To limit the risk of usurpation, Doctolib has just announced the strengthening of its verification procedures for professionals referenced on the platform.
This initiative comes after health professionals and patients criticized Doctolib for having allowed its users to make appointments with naturopaths or people who practice medicine illegally.
The platform has suspended 17 accounts of naturopaths, a discipline with no medical basis, after coming under heavy criticism in recent weeks.
This week, Doctolib was overtaken by another scandal: according to information from the investigation unit of Radio France, fake doctors were registered on the platform. The Montpellier prosecutor’s office opened an investigation in July for “illegal practice of medicine” against two fake doctors.
Unregulated practitioners will be flagged more explicitly
Following these cases, Doctolib promised to strengthen security on the platform. It’s done : the group announced the strengthening of verification procedures professionals referenced on its site.
Doctolib is implementing a series of measures this week for all practitioners using the online service. First, the platform strives to strengthen the reporting and complaint procedure against the practitioners listed on the site.
Doctolib also wants to ensure that no appointment can take place before the verification of the right to practice of a health professional is effective.
In order to improve information for patients, Doctolib will clarify the content of the sheets of unregulated practitioners, “by explicitly mentioning that they are not health professionals”. The platform recalls that practitioners carrying out “unregulated well-being” activities represent 3% of Doctolib practitioners and 0.3% of appointments made.
Teleconsultation and online appointment booking, a major trend
The site also announces the opening of a consultation with its medical and professional committee, Miviludes, health professional unions, health orders, patient associations and health authorities, in order to, it, “better regulate the referencing of unregulated practitioners”.
Doctolib specifies that this consultation will give rise to “a new series of measures communicated at its end”.
The intermediation of online appointment booking is becoming a major trend, as recently shown by the takeover of the company One Medical by the heavyweight of e-commerce, Amazon. Doctolib, benefiting from a phenomenal acceleration of its activity during the Covid crisis, plans to recruit 3,500 people in the next five years.
Among the project projects, Doctolib wants to create new services for patients, such as the sharing of dematerialized prescriptions and a messaging system allowing them to exchange with their doctors. For health professionals, Doctolib wants to develop new medical and administrative software, and launch secure messaging between caregivers.