QuickMD

Engage.

I’ve long thought about putting pen to paper to express my thoughts about the path telemedicine helps carve for those struggling with addiction. As the annual rounds of New Year’s resolutions began populating my news feeds, I felt the need to add my reflections and resolutions to this community, to be part of the conversation now and going forward…to engage.

As an emergency medicine doctor and founder of QuickMD, I’ve had many roles in my professional career all with the intent to help people live healthier, better lives. Whether it’s as the Chief Medical Officer for QuickMD or as a physician making rounds at a major teaching hospital, I am always an advocate for those in need. As an advocate, I’m listening acutely to a patient’s concerns, identifying treatment options, and having thorough discussions with patients and their families – every step of the way, the way in which I engage is critical to the outcome.

In 2019, we launched QuickMD, a full-service online healthcare network that has grown to more than 150 U.S.-based doctors who serve hundreds of thousands of patients each year. Our specialties range from urgent care and opioid addiction recovery to behavioral health, weight loss treatment, and more. As advocates for patient wellbeing, we seek to provide world class healthcare that is affordable and accessible, convenient and confidential, and reaches even the hardest-to-reach populations in the United States. The care we provide is guided by kindness and compassion, and fueled by a results-driven mentality that helps people overcome whatever obstacles may stand in the way of a healthier, better life.

As we begin a new year, my team and I have renewed our commitment to engage with those in need and with each other to strengthen our network and increase capacity, welcoming new patients, providers, and partners to the QuickMD family. We are greatly encouraged to see barriers to opioid treatment like the X Waiver abolished in favor of a more humane (and therefore more successful) approach to ending the opioid epidemic. Still, we need to do more.

Telemedicine soared in popularity during the pandemic. It was a tool that helped keep people alive. When our world essentially shut down, telemedicine kept the healthcare system open for business, facilitating safer, faster, and more affordable care for patients regardless of location. Today, telemedicine continues to thrive as a means to make access to affordable, world class healthcare a reality for all Americans. QuickMD is at the forefront, championing this necessary tool, demonstrating every day how much we’ve come to depend on telehealth and the ability to see our providers whenever and wherever we need them.

QuickMD pledges to expand our impact this year with grants to nonprofit healthcare-related organizations in communities where we have patients and providers and where the need for engagement is greatest. For QuickMD, this promises to be a year filled with new product and service launches, and new resources aimed at helping to end the opioid and obesity epidemics in our country. We are excited to continue partnering with patients and providers from all walks of life who, like us, are emerging from the pandemic with renewed hope that the world can and will fully recover.

We wish everyone a safe, happy, and healthy year.

–Dr. Talib Omer, Founder and Chief Medical Officer, QuickMD