Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Rami Abdou
Hi Dr. Rami, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m Dr. Rami – a California native brought to a career in medicine taking the scenic route, if you will. I spent my pre-medical years working in restaurants to help get me through school and eventually completed my education at the University of California Davis and later at the Boston University School of Medicine. Some accomplishments of which I am most proud include the prestigious Poplack Award for excellent patient care and competence in medicine. I was also inducted into the highly selective Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and earned the Gold Humanism in Medicine Award. I take great pride in these accomplishments and ended up matching in a very competitive specialty – Ears, Nose & Throat – Head & Neck Surgery.
After finishing my training, it wasn’t long before I felt first-hand the difficulty in doing my primary duty – taking honest and excellent care of my patients. And it took me years to determine exactly why. The U.S. healthcare system is reactive and faces a true crisis: 100 million Americans lack regular doctor access, billions of our hard-earned dollars are wasted annually, and talented professionals are leaving the industry at high rates. Despite my best and most laborious efforts, I felt nothing ever changed for the better in the clinic.
After enough experience, I realized that inadequate physical exams miss or delay diagnosis more often than not – in 76% of cases! This is a major source of increased healthcare expenses and pain for the patient. Being an ENT doctor prepared me to help bridge this gap by putting the physical exam center stage. That led me to develop Orella: a digital health solution that combines virtual care with physical exams to help boost access to expert care.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Certainly not a smooth road. Starting anything – especially an idea with no precedent and from scratch – has been the most difficult thing I have ever done (and this is after medical school, a 5-year surgical residency, and operating regularly in patients’ faces and necks). Orella is establishing a completely new workflow for patient care that is transparent, accountable, and affordable. This must happen in a very chaotic market environment – healthcare is heavily regulated to a fault, disincentivized to do the right things, and popularly misunderstood to be a major pending liability affecting all of us.
The challenges have been numerous: concept, design, funding, development, and execution. Ever-shifting development and progress needs have to be balanced with realistic solutions and maintaining commitment to the result without being too attached to any particular stage or step has been difficult but imperative. I also had to get used to living very simply again – as much as possible. And now bringing it to the point of going live in the app store in less than 3 years is a huge personal accomplishment.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Orella is bringing sense back to healthcare. It revolutionizes healthcare by addressing critical challenges in access, cost, and efficiency within ENT care. Our innovative, patient-centered solution combines a user-friendly mobile app, in-person exams, and virtual consultations with specialists, to offer unprecedented value for screening and treatment of ENT conditions. Orella’s innovative model brings high-value care to underserved areas, improving patient outcomes, retaining healthcare workers, and reducing costs. Orella stands out in digital health by combining virtual care with standardized physical exams, unlike many app-based platforms. We leverage these exams to increase access to care and build a unique endoscopic dataset for personalized treatment and better chart patient care and outcomes. Our hybrid approach and cutting-edge technology differentiate us in the evolving healthcare landscape. We are built around the stakeholders that matter – patients and the clinicians who care for them.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
It’s a matter of perspective, and certainly, the element of time sometimes changes the judgment of good versus bad. Certainly, I would have said the initial events that led me here were very bad luck: patient safety events in the hospital, untrustworthy collaborators, and an ongoing pandemic leading to the collapse of the clinic as we know it. But it led to an opportunity to get my values in alignment, chart out clear intentions for my life and my business, and chart intentional steps to achieve them. When you put work and effort into the universe, it will meet you – but it may look completely unexpected. I have met some of the most personally influential people at just the right moment that ended up bringing the project forward. I have learned things at seemingly the right moments. I have been crushed and disappointed by events at what appear to be the worst moments, only to find that it was a good thing to have worked out that way.
Pricing:
- $49 for a starter care kit
- $349 for full exam, audio screening, MD specialist consult
- Covered with PPO insurance and Medicare
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.orellahealth.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orellahealth/profilecard/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@dr.ramimd
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/dx0KqrDocs
