Sunny Ray talks with Bharat Maheshwari, a business professor and co-founder of ONRx, a virtual clinic for Ontario residents. Speaking from India, where he is spending Diwali with his parents for the first time in 30 years, Maheshwari explains how the idea grew from watching aging relatives struggle to reach short appointments, and from the isolation of seniors during COVID. He describes a team of engineers, privacy and security experts, and physicians who built a compliant web app. Patients can book a visit with a doctor using their health card, and the service connects to pharmacies for prescriptions. The conversation covers clinician burnout, how automating scheduling and communication cuts wasted time, and why health data must stay in Canada. Maheshwari also discusses cybersecurity, ONRx clinics in remote pharmacies, after hours care, and his hope that the service will reach other provinces. He closes with advice for Ontarians: register early, keep the service handy, and do not delay care when you need it.
A professor and his team built a compliant virtual clinic so Ontarians can see a doctor and get medicine without leaving home.
What pushed you and your partners to build a virtual clinic?
We saw the problem personally. Aging parents needed an ambulance for a ten minute appointment, and one partner's mother fell during that trip. Then COVID locked seniors in nursing homes with little care. We are engineers, so we connected with doctors and decided Canadians should build this for Canadians, with health data staying in Canada.
If I live in Ontario, how do I actually use ONRx?
You do very little. Go to the site, log in with a Canadian phone number so data stays in Canada, and book an appointment using your health card. You do not pay. A pharmacy is integrated, so afterward they can call you and either send your medicine or have you pick it up.
What did teaching business teach you about healthcare that a hospital could not?
I teach systems thinking and using technology to solve problems, so I break a problem into pieces. Many of my friends are doctors, about 150 of them, and I see their side. They want to serve but face paperwork and handovers. Digitizing and automating the workflow removes wasted time without creating extra time.
How does the platform help doctors and patients day to day?
Nobody has to call and wait for the phone to be picked up. Booking is online. If a doctor needs to cancel, one click sends rescheduling messages. If a patient is running late, the system keeps them informed. Better communication and workflow, with strong security, makes the technology useful, and technology nobody uses is a liability.
What was the biggest challenge in getting started?
Compliance. In healthcare nobody wants to touch technology until you are compliant. We meet ISO 27000 and Health Canada and Ontario standards, and the service has been validated by Ontario Health. Security is a day and night effort because hacking is getting easier, and trust in this domain is very fragile.
What did you believe about virtual care in 2021 that you have since changed?
I first saw virtual care as a means of communication. Working with clinicians, I learned privacy and compliance must be extremely strong. The data is so highly encrypted that we cannot see it. It belongs to the patient, and the patient allows the doctor to view it.
How are you reaching people in remote areas who are less comfortable with technology?
We created ONRx clinics with pharmacy partners in remote villages. An older person can go to the pharmacy, and with help from the pharmacy assistants get on the call, receive the medicine, and go home. Bigger cities have walk-in clinics, but remote villages struggle to get prescriptions or routine blood tests.
Where can people learn about the app, and will it expand beyond Ontario?
It is a web app that works on a phone or a computer. A computer is better for the call because of the bigger screen. The site is onrx.ca, short for Ontario RX. We started in Ontario, but I think New Brunswick and BC are working on it, and it should reach other provinces soon.
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