Zava

Zava
FormerlyDrEd
Founded30 September 2010 (2010-09-30)
Founders
  • David Meinertz (CEO)
  • Amit Khutti[1]
Areas served
UK & Europe
Services
ParentHealth Bridge Ltd[4]
Websitewww.zavamed.com/uk/

Zava is the brand name for an online doctor service and online pharmacy Zavamed.com run by the London-based Health Bridge Ltd. Launched in 2011 as DrEd, it was re-branded to Zava in 2016.

History

Zava was established in 2010 as DrEd.com by former Dr Thom employees David Meinertz and Amit Khutti.[5] Its website was launched in November 2011 in the UK and Germany with two staff doctors.[6] In 2012, the company raised an angel round of $1.4 million.[7] In April 2012, DrEd opened in Austria and launched an emergency contraception delivery service in the UK.[8] On 20 June 2012, DrEd was launched in Switzerland.[9] In early 2014, the business became profitable.[10]

In December 2014, DrEd was launched in Ireland, offering prescriptions for various medications.[11] In June 2016, the service was launched in France under the new brand Zava with four French doctors providing online consultations.[12] In September 2018, Zava had 155 employees and served patients in six European countries.[13] It was one of the largest digital healthcare companies in Europe having served more than 2 million patients online, including 400,000 from Germany.[14] In 2018 and 2019, British and German media wrote about Zava's stockpiling of key medications, in the context of a potential shortage of Viagra Connect caused by Brexit.[13]

In January 2019, DrEd changed its name to Zava in Germany. According to the website, the name is derived from the French Ça va? ("How are you?").[15] The firm also announced plans to open an office in Germany.[14] In June 2019, Health Bridge Ltd., which owns Zava, raised $32m (£20m) in a series A round.[16][7] It aimed to expand its service in Europe and open an office in Hamburg.[7][17]

Regulation

Zava operates under British and European Union laws. In the UK, Health Bridge Ltd., the company that owns zavamed.com, is registered with and regulated by the Care Quality Commission.[4] Health Bridge Limited has a MHRA permission to sell medicines online.[18] Health Bridge Ltd. Pharmacy is registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council.[19]

In Europe, the company operates under the European Directive 2011/24/EC on cross-border healthcare that states that prescriptions written by a doctor registered in one EU member state are recognized in all other member states.[20] However, the legal grounds for Zava’s services have been questioned in several EU countries. Doctors and pharmacists have highlighted challenges between local doctor treatment and prescription fulfilment from pharmacies due to the European Directive (see "Criticism and controversies").[21][22]

Service

In the EU, Zava offers diagnosis by a doctor using telemedicine and is offering Rx prescriptions, which can be delivered using partner online pharmacies. In the UK, Zava has its own in-house registered pharmacy.[2] Zava relies on patients filling in a detailed online medical questionnaire which is reviewed by a person from its in-house clinical team.[23] The doctors provide medical consultation and can prescribe medicine.[7] Zava has provided 5 million paid consultations since its launch.[24]

Criticism and controversies

In Austria

In April 2012, when DrEd was launched in Austria it faced opposition from the Minister of Health Alois Stöger, the Austrian chamber of physicians and the Austrian chamber of pharmacists.[25] The Austrian association for patient’s rights also expressed its concerns about the quality of service that DrEd may provide.[26]

In January 2013, the Austrian consumer magazine Konsument tested DrEd.com by ordering a gonorrhea treatment and a prescription for a malaria drug.[27] The editors noted that the online doctor "comically" advised a sex worker of the need to inform her sexual partners of the last three months about her STD infection (which the Austrian law requires). In malaria cases, the editors complained that the online doctor gave them an "unnecessary" preventive treatment, because their test patient was supposed to travel only above 2,500 meters altitude, where the disease was not present. The magazine concluded that Austrian patients should absolutely avoid DrEd or any online medicine service, because they "cannot replace the personal meeting between the doctor and the patient".[27][28]

In 2016, Profil, an Austrian weekly news magazine, tested the DrEd.com service by ordering Viagra and once against expressed concerns around the quality of online consultation and prescription.[29]

In Germany

In 2011, when the service was launched in Germany, Dirk Heinrich, the chairman of NAV-Virchow-Bund, an association of German physicians, criticized DrEd for prescribing medicines without physical examination. He said that "a diagnosis from an online survey is not a diagnosis, but a guess" and called DrEd "a covert online-pharmacy".[30] In July 2012, Stiftung Warentest, a German consumer organisation, tested DrEd with patients allegedly having bladder infection and chlamydia infection. In both cases antibiotics were prescribed without the urine tests necessary for the diagnosis.[31] DrEd responded with an open letter, questioning the care of the anonymous testers.[32]

In March 2013, the Federal Ministry of Health questioned the legal grounds on which DrEd was operating in Germany.[33] In October 2013, when DrEd reached an agreement with the pharmacy chain Ordermed for the morning-after pill delivery, it was canceled by Ordermed because of its pharmacy partners' objection.[34] In fall 2013, the newly-elected Federal government proposed changes to the law, demanding a direct doctor-patient consultation for the initial prescription of medicines, which was sharply criticized by DrEd.[35] In May 2014, the Bavarian Health Minister, Melanie Huml, demanded the Federal government to clarify that online prescriptions made outside of Germany were not valid.[36]

In 2016, the Ministry of Health proposed changes to German legislation demanding personal contact between doctor and patient and a ban on online issued prescriptions, which became popularly known as "Lex DrEd" or "DrEd-Verbot" (DrEd ban).[37][22][38] On 11 November 2016, the Bundestag approved these changes.[38] This ban forced DrEd to work with EU pharmacies outside of the country that offered German delivery.[39]

However, in April 2018, the Chamber of Physicians of Schleswig-Holstein changed its code to allow online consultations to the state doctors and, in early May 201,8 the change happened on a national level, affirmed by the Federal Congress of German doctors.[40] Also in May 2018, the Chamber of Physicians of Baden-Württemberg approved DrEd as a model project, following its 2016 decision to test telemedicine services within approved model projects where web service is compared to the hospital treatment and evaluated by the Chamber.[41]

In the UK and Ireland

In 2012, when DrEd launched the morning after pill delivery service in the UK, it was criticized for encouraging underage sex.[42] In 2015, when DrEd began offering STI testing kits online, some doctors criticized the practice, claiming that ordering STI test kits online does not allow patients to receive advice on safe sexual practices the way face-to-face consultations do.[43] In September 2021, Zava partnered with Asda to launch Asda Online Doctor.[44][45]

References

  1. ↑ Sheffield, Hazel (22 November 2017). "Start-ups get thinking caps on to tackle mental health". The Times. Retrieved 4 July 2019.(subscription required)
    - Bogdan, Boris (2018). "Behandlung aus der Ferne: Telemedizin". MedRevolution: Neue Technologien am Puls der Patienten [MedRevolution: New technologies in the pulse of patients] (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 193. ISBN 9783662575062 – via Google Books.
  2. 1 2 Puwein-Borkowski, Sepp (2017). Strategic Choices for Online Pharmacies in Austria and Germany. Norderstedt: Books on Demand. p. 1980. ISBN 9783744855167 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ Wetter, Thomas (2015). "Level 2: Service Without In-Person Contact Between Provider and Client". Consumer Health Informatics: New Services, Roles, and Responsibilities. Springer. p. 122. ISBN 978-3-319-19590-2 – via Google Books.
  4. 1 2 "Health Bridge Limited London: Inspection report" (PDF). Care Quality Commission. 16 October 2017. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  5. ↑ "Wie am Fließband - brand eins online". www.brandeins.de. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  6. ↑ "Gesundheit & Fitness: Die 42 besten Programme zum Download". netzwelt (in German). Retrieved 28 August 2019.
    - "Webdoktor DrEd.com behandelt nur online: Wie sinnvoll ist eine Arztpraxis im Internet?". bild.de (in German). Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Lomas, Natasha (13 June 2019). "Zava bags $32M to expand its AI-free telehealth service in Europe". TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  8. ↑ Wardrop, Murray (17 April 2012). "Morning after pill courier service launched". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
    - ernst.mauritz (16 April 2012). "Nicht jeder will zu DrEd". kurier.at (in German). Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  9. ↑ Rotzinger, von Ulrich (19 July 2012). "Diagnose via Internet: Deutsche Online-Ärzte in der Schweiz gestoppt". Blick. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  10. ↑ "Hamburger setzen verstärkt auf den Doktor aus dem Internet" [Hamburg are increasingly relying on the doctor from the Internet]. Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). 26 February 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.(subscription required)
  11. ↑ Boran, Marie (11 December 2014). "DrEd.com new online prescription service". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  12. ↑ Rosenweg, Daniel (3 June 2017). "Téléconsultations : les Français y sont prêts, l'Etat moins" [Teleconsultations: the French are ready, the state less so]. Le Parisien (in French). Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  13. 1 2 Volkery, Carsten; Berschens, Ruth (13 December 2018). "Theresa May kämpft einen aussichtslosen Kampf" [Theresa May fights a losing battle]. Handelsblatt (in German). Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  14. 1 2 Winnat, Christoph (10 January 2019). "Online-Praxis DrEd zieht es nach Deutschland" [Online practice DrEd moves to Germany]. Ärzte-Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  15. ↑ "DrEd heißt jetzt Zava" [DrEd is now called Zava] (in German). Zava. 2019. Archived from the original on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  16. ↑ Field, Matthew (12 June 2019). "Digital doctor start-up Zava raises £20m to expand remote consultations across Europe". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 14 June 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.(subscription required)
  17. ↑ "Online-Arztpraxis eröffnet im August ein Büro in Hamburg" [Online-doctor practice will open an office in Hamburg in August]. Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). 13 June 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  18. ↑ "Health Bridge Limited". MHRA. 2019. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  19. ↑ "General Pharmaceutical Council: registration number 9010262". General Pharmaceutical Council. 2019. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  20. ↑ Kennedy, John (4 December 2014). "New online GP prescription service goes live in Ireland". Silicon Republic. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  21. ↑ Rotzinger, Ulrich (19 July 2012). "Deutsche Online-Ärzte in der Schweiz gestoppt" [German online doctors stopped in Switzerland]. Blick (in German). Archived from the original on 4 October 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
    - Saviana, Alexandra (11 July 2018). "Achat en ligne de médicaments avec ordonnance: comment des sites étrangers contournent la loi française" [Online Purchase of Prescription Drugs: How Foreign Sites bypass French Law]. Marianne (in French). Archived from the original on 13 July 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  22. 1 2 "Sprechzimmer im Web" [Consulting room on the web]. Der Spiegel (in German). 23 August 2016. Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  23. ↑ Maaß, Stephan (15 July 2013). "Wenn das iPad den Besuch beim Arzt ersetzt" [When the iPad replaces the visit to the doctor]. Die Welt (in German). Archived from the original on 27 April 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  24. ↑ "Digitale Gesundheitsversorgung der Zukunft: Zava und sprechstunde.online bündeln ihre Kräfte".
  25. ↑ Winroither, Eva (17 April 2012). "Sturm auf Onlinearzt, Ärztekammer prüft Klage" [Storm hits online doctor, medical association is considering lawsuit]. Die Presse (in German). Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
    - "Apotheken-Rezepte von DrEd: Bei der Beratung versagt" [Pharmacy Recipes by DrEd: consultation failed] (in German). Verein für Konsumenteninformation. 21 February 2013. Archived from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
    - "Der Arzt, der Sie nicht sehen will" [The doctor who does not want to see you]. Kleine Zeitung (in German). 28 April 2012. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  26. ↑ Mauritz, Ernst (16 April 2012). "Nicht jeder will zu DrEd" [Not everyone wants DrEd]. Kurier (in German). Archived from the original on 22 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  27. 1 2 "Rezepte von DrEd: Arzt im Netz" [Recipes of DrEd: doctor on the net] (in German). Verein für Konsumenteninformation. 24 January 2013. Archived from the original on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  28. ↑ "Die fragwürdige Praxis von Dr. Ed" [The Questionable Practice of Dr. Ed]. Der Standard (in German). 23 January 2013. Archived from the original on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  29. ↑ Dzugan, Franziska Dzugan (1 August 2016). "Wie gefährlich sind digitale Sprechstunden?" [How dangerous are digital office hours?]. Profil (in German). Archived from the original on 2 August 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  30. ↑ Höflinger, Laura (28 November 2011). "Ferndiagnose von der Insel" [Remote diagnosis from the island]. Der Spiegel (in German). Archived from the original on 3 December 2011. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
    - Tuffs, Annette (6 December 2011). "German internet clinic based in London angers German doctors". The BMJ. 343 (7835): d7933. doi:10.1136/bmj.d7933. PMID 22147930. S2CID 33214194. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  31. ↑ "DrEd: Riskanter Besuch beim Online-Arzt" [DrEd: Risky visit to the online doctor] (in German). Stiftung Warentest. 18 July 2012. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
    - "DrEd.com: Stiftung Warentest nimmt Online-Ärzte in die Mangel" [DrEd.com: Stiftung Warentest bothers online physicians]. Der Spiegel (in German). 19 July 2012. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  32. ↑ "Stellungnahme zur Bewertung durch Stiftung Warentest" (in German). DrEd. 20 July 2012. Archived from the original on 10 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  33. ↑ "DrEd beschäftigt BMG" [DrEd questioned by BMG]. Pharmazeutische Zeitung (in German). 5 March 2013. Archived from the original on 20 November 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  34. ↑ ""Pille danach" weiterhin nur nach Arztbesuch" [The "morning-after pill" to be prescribed only after doctor's visit]. Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). 2 October 2013. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
    - Winnat, Christoph (4 October 2013). "Ordermed gibt DrEd schon wieder den Laufpass" [Ordermed gives DrEd the pass again]. Ärzte-Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  35. ↑ "DrEd kritisiert Koalitionspläne" [DrEd criticizes coalition plans]. Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung (in German). 21 November 2013. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  36. ↑ Ziegler, Juliane (6 May 2014). "Erneuter Vorstoß aus Bayern: Huml fordert klare Regeln für Online-Rezepte" [A renewed push from Bavaria: Huml calls for clear rules for online recipes]. Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 6 July 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  37. ↑ Link, Christiane (26 September 2016). "Onlineärzte bald offline?" [Online doctors soon offline?]. Die Zeit (in German). Archived from the original on 27 September 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  38. 1 2 Klein, Lothar (11 November 2016). "Bundestag beschließt DrED-Verbot" [Bundestag adopts DrED ban]. apotheke-adhoc.de (in German). Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  39. ↑ Rohrer, Benjamin (30 May 2018). "Ärztekammer erlaubt DrEd Online-Beratung und Rezept-Versand" [The Medical Association allows DrEd online consultation and prescription shipping]. Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 15 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  40. ↑ Dräbing, Theresa (8 May 2018). "Online zum Arzt" [To the doctor online]. Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). Archived from the original on 19 May 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
    - Schwinn, Michaela (11 May 2018). "Der Damm ist längst gebrochen" [The dam is broken]. Süddeutsche Zeitung. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  41. ↑ "Ausschließliche ärztliche Fernbehandlung" [Exclusive medical remote treatment]. zm-online.de (in German). 30 May 2018. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  42. ↑ Wardrop, Murray (17 April 2012). "Morning after pill courier service launched". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 October 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  43. ↑ "Let's talk about sexually transmitted infections". The Irish Times. 27 January 2015. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  44. ↑ "The online doctor that works to your schedule". Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  45. ↑ "Online Prescriptions From US Doctors". Retrieved 11 October 2021.
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