Virtual health care provider ORO Health is raising $3 million in seed round financing. The mix of capital and loans is coming from MCI Onehealth, investor group TGIC2 and Desjardins Capital.

Founded in 2020, ORO Health will use the money to accelerate development of its telemedicine platform. The company targets medical clinics seeking to improve productivity and boost access to patient care.

It is also hiring for several new, Montreal-based roles in both tech and business roles.

“The future of medicine is increasingly being driven by virtual healthcare,” said cofounder Dr. Emilie Bourgeault. “The confidence that investors have demonstrated in ORO Health’s vision is a testament to the seriousness of our asynchronous telemedicine platform project, and to the urgency of responding to the growing needs of Canadian patients and clinicians.”

The platform uses what it calls “asynchronous telemedicine.” Rather than live video chat, doctors and patients instead use instant messaging to communicate, a method ORO Health says improves time management for both parties.

The platform allows doctors to have direct communication with patients and pharmacies through chat and picture upload, and includes an online payment system. It employs 12 dermatologists across Canada.

ORO Health says its artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology “will provide patients across the country with greater access to medical professionals as well as the ability to obtain reliable, rapid and secure care, at any time.”

It’s primary product is called DermaGO, a private dermatology telemedicine clinic, founded in 2018 by Dr. Bourgeault, Dr. Marc-André Doré and Jean-Philippe Doré, a business analyst.

Over two years, ORO Health says 10,000 Canadian patients used DermaGo to obtain quick diagnosis from a certified dermatologist for minor skin conditions. These visits also came without the need for a prior referral from a general practitioner.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided considerable momentum, enabling DermaGO to achieve a nearly 700 percent growth, compared to the same period last year.

“Dermatological concerns requiring a specialist consultation are a frequent driver of both walk-in and family medicine visits,” – said Dr. Alexander Dobranowski. “Being able to provide such patients with access to user-friendly technologies and highly-responsive specialist consults, supported by strong analytics, is part of our vision to realize the promise of personalized and precision medicine, one which we believe is shared by ORO Health”