This idea is for my other medical folks out there. One of the trends in medicine over the past decade has been moving of treatment and services outside of the hospital and to the patients home or other areas of convenience. There are some pretty basic, non-invasive imaging exams that people can have done that would let them know about the current state of their cardiac and neuro health. Specifically EKG’s, Transthoracic Echocardiograms (TTE) and carotid ultrasounds. Most these procedures are typically done after the patient becomes symptomatic and they’re used diagnostically to help create an accurate diagnosis. This business idea would seek to move these procedures outside of the hospital and into patients homes via a mobile medical business that partnered with primary care physicians, cardiologists and possible even hospitals themselves to help monitor these aspects of patients care. The EKG and the TTE are powerful tools used in within the hospital to diagnose cardiac dysfunction. While the carotid ultrasound let’s patients know if they are at risk for having a stroke.

After some time spent researching these procedures costs I’ve found on average the following numbers:

Carotid Ultrasound: 200-600$ average, 30 min for the exam

TTE: 700-1200$, 45-60 min for the exam

EKG: 150-300$, 15 min for the exam

This business can also be supplemented with other ancillary services as well such as travel vaccinations or common blood tests.

These tests can typically be done by an experienced tech but they will need to be interpreted. This can either be done by an Nurse Practitioner, Physicians Assistant or MD (state laws dependent) and if you’re not one of these yourself they can be paid a fee as your Medical Director to sign off on your particular business transactions. This typically runs around 600-1000$ a month.

A large bulk of your initial cost will be the equipment you need to perform these tests. A solid portable US machine is anywhere from $2,500 to $8,000 while a portable EKG machine can run you $1,000 to $2,500. Also laptops and necessary secure electronic medical record system (EMR) system can run you another several thousand dollars.

And of course their is your staffing costs. Ideally, to keep initial costs low, you would have an US tech who could also do EKG’s and have the NP/PA or MD interpret. Having the providers do the tests and interpret is an option but if you have several of these providers on staff it will be more expensive than the costs of employing techs.

I know cardiologists, neurologists, and primary care providers would love to have this information available to them as well as having these procedures available for their patients sooner. Patients tend to wait several days to weeks for appointments for these exams. Ideally this service would curt down on those lengthy wait times. Connecting with these doctors offices directly would be very easy especially if you’re offering reduced costs and shorter wait times.

This idea I believe can be incredibly profitable for the right person with the right background. There are some steep initial costs but those can be re-couped fairly quickly depending on your roster of patients and staff costs.