Jonathan Epstein is co-founder and COO of Tx Xchange. Prior to starting Tx Xchange, Jonathan spent 14 years in the enterprise software and healthcare markets. He has held a variety of roles in sales, sales management, product management, and product development. At West Corporation, Jonathan secured and managed multi-million dollar contracts with ATT, Qwest, and the cities of Chicago and New Orleans. At Mobile Airwaves, Jonathan was responsible for launching one of the first mobile application development platforms. At Teletrac, a supplier of GPS and fleet management software solutions, he launched the industry’s first heavy equipment asset tracking platform. He started his corporate career selling health insurance for ACSIA and then, CIGNA Health Insurance. Prior to putting on a suit, Jonathan played tennis professionally, followed by working for Hilton Hotels as a tennis director.  He has an A.S. in business management from the State University of New York, Empire State College.
 
Health E-Insights: What makes Tx Xchange so innovative?
 
Mr. Epstein: The traditional healthcare model is focused on the 1% of the time practitioners are with their patients knee-to-knee, such as an office visit. Tx Xchange is focused on efficiently extending care delivery and patient relationships to the 99% of the time they’re not together. It’s a true paradigm shift that provides clinical and financial benefits for both practitioners and their patients. With our web-based platform, patient retention increases, patient participation and outcomes improve, and new online programs including living gluten-free or overcoming stress and fatigue can be created and delivered to anyone in the world. We call this our E-Health Service and it gives practitioners the ability to launch new, highly profitable revenue streams, while patients get more convenient and affordable access to professional care. Everyone wins.
 
Health E-Insights: Is the software platform your brain child?
 
Mr. Epstein: Yes, along with Dr. Mark Barnes, who I’ve known for over 20 years. Mark called me a few years back and effectively said patients were leaving his clinic after a visit with a head full of instructions and paper hand-outs. He believed that approach wasn’t enabling them as patients or doing anything to strengthen his business relationship with them as customers
 
Health E-Insights: Do you see this marketing approach as a way to truly enhance supplement sales?
 
Mr. Epstein: The personalized portal each patient has is very sticky. Patients are logging in over two-timesa week to view educational videos, access their treatment plans or lab results, read articles, ask questions, track goals, participate in a teleconsultation, etc. That’s a much greater frequency than they see their practitioner in person or visit their practitioner’s business website. We give practitioners the ability to leverage this traffic by putting an online medicinary that’s open 24×7, right in the patient’s portal. It’s like the old adage in retail – location, location, location.
 
Health E-Insights: What are the top two metrics to which your company pays the closest attention?
 
Mr. Epstein: Utilization of the software by both practitioners and patients. Utilization actually encompasses a number individual metrics. If both providers and patients are using the software, the clinical and financial benefits we promote are achieved and everyone’s happy.
 
Health E-Insights: What is the most distinct aspect of your office?
 
Mr. Epstein: Our kitchen – the refrigerator is always full and subsequently, so is the kitchen. That’s where we congregate and often have very valuable discussions – and sometimes not so valuable.
 
Health E-Insights: If someone handed you $100,000 how would you spend it?
 
Mr. Epstein: After I came back from a vacation with my family, I’d use it to scale our marketing efforts. We’ve got an innovative, proven telehealth platform that’s helping practitioners be more successful clinically and financially in an increasingly web-based world. Now, we just need to share what we do with more of them.
 
Sheldon Baker is well-known for creating nutraceutical brand marketing and public relations campaigns. For Health E-Insights interview consideration, contact him at [email protected]. And follow him on Twitter @NutraInk.