Telenor TeleDoctor: Consumers Be Aware
It looks like the Telenor legal department had to work late night to write the disclaimers (below) about their new service TeleDoctor. Telenor, we expect you to show some responsibility on your part when it comes to health matters. Please think twice before making grand claims that “TeleDoctor will revolutionize the medical industry by eliminating any doctor patient barriers that might exist due to language, lack of education, lack of mobility, etc.” This kind of marketing speak is both misleading and dangerous. Here are the disclaimers:
- Telenor neither gives secondary medical advice directly nor engages in the practice of medicine.
- In all cases Telenor is not accountable for the malpractices, genuineness or authenticity of the advice/information given through this service or for the credentials of the medical experts giving the information/advice
- Telenor shall not be liable for any loss or damage caused to any subscriber or any other party as a result thereof.
- This service is designed for the subscribers solely for the purpose of providing easy access to doctors in order to obtain secondary medical advice if and when possible.
Thanks to Ahsan Zia for pointing this out. Also see post on same topic at Green & White.
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Telenor is just a pipe, and this same holds true for any services running on top of it. Even for VAS such as content, ringtones and pictures, telenor is not responsible but it is the VAS provider who is.
Personally, im happy telenor does not take responsiblity. Medicine is not their core product and they should not be reaching into that domain half heartedly. They’ve partnered with the telemedicine program, which does have medicine as its core product.
my two cents..
I think Telenor has gone a bit too much on marketing of this service. Brand image should be kept away from things which people usually don’t associate very good memories with. The service contains a strong appeal that the whole brand could be wrapped into it.
As far as the technical aspects of the program are concerned; again a big risk. A nause can be caused by multiple events, eating too much, hypertention, kidney trouble and a heart attack’s preleminay symptom. Each of these need to be measured with heart rate of the person and heart beat’s trend, in case it’s regular or if it is skipping. It’s not possible for Teledoctor to do all of that in a market where more than half of people aren’t proprely educated to convey the symptoms correctly and do a pre-diagnosis of themselves.
In situation like these, If nobody is taking the responsibility then who is?
I think the problem Telenor is probably having is that it has had to create all these VAS services -itself-, to sort out the chicken or the egg problem. The idea is noble and can work, but would be alot more credible if done by a startup maybe funded by telenor and partnered with a reputable medical organization say Agha Khan University of Edhi, etc etc.
same goes for Telenor’s TV streaming service, would make alot more sense if they partnered with say Geo to provide exclusive premium lie video content on their network instead of going it on their own.
Lets see if the coming months help sort this out…
I think Telenor has done one more good thing in there potfolio, its something like first aid. one can contact there doctors any time (24hours) and then move forward for consultation. In my opnion its one of the best VAS any telecon is providing.
Though branding it that way may not be suitable, yet its a good step in prolifiration of tele-medicine awareness, in the country. this will give a new dimention to atleast one segment of the society. In times of trouble, if your cell may help a bit, it may count a lot!!!
@Mohtashim, Bilal - good points. competition can make you do some lousy things.
@Mansoor - Telenor is more than a pipe. They have to stand behind these services even if they are not legally responsible. There’s a reason why mobile operators are so careful about the content served through their network. At the very least they should spell out the credentials of the service - as Mohtashim mentioned.
BTW this is not about criticizing Telenor as a whole. Most of the time I’ve praised them.
This have also been published here
http://djuiceblog.com/archives/2008/04/10/money-earning-tactics-telenor-teledoctor/
I just called teledoctor regarding my OCD. He helped me as much as he could.. I think its a good service for small matters…