Public-to-private Montreal nurse creates Uber-like app

Oren Sebag is a registered nurse in Montreal and CEO of Avvy. (Joe Lofaro/CTV News)

Montreal nurse Oren Sebag is betting that pandemic convenience is here to stay with the launch of his company's made-in-Montreal mobile app that provides same-day appointments at home for blood tests and flu shots — with just a few clicks.

Sebag, a nurse for 20 years and now the CEO of the Avvy app, compares the service to Uber for health care.

"So think about it much like you would order your favourite meal from your favourite restaurant. It does the exact same thing but with health-care professionals," he said in an interview.

Avvy launched first in the Greater Montreal Area in April and the company hopes to expand to other Canadian cities, like Vancouver and Toronto.

Users who download the app can upload their requisition form from their doctor and request a nurse to come to their home. Most appointments are on the same day, and some can be as fast as 15 minutes, according to Sebag.

Users can request a variety of non-urgent care options, such as blood tests, COVID-19 tests (PCR and rapid antigen tests), electrocardiograms, strep tests, ear cleaning, and immunizations — for a fee. Blood tests typically hover around $109 while flu shots are $89.

CLSCs already offer free at-home visits for some patients and other private clinics like MDomicile, Cliniquego, RN Privée also charge for some at-home appointments with health-care professionals, but Sebag said his mobile app is what sets Avvy apart, since there is no waiting — either on the phone or in a line-up — for a flu shot, for example.

Treating COVID-19 patients during the pandemic, Sebag said he saw an opportunity to bridge the gap in health-care in Montreal by giving residents more options.

"Throughout the pandemic, I've been doing a lot of house calls to people that were very, very sick and could not get out of their house. There is a need today, and people are more used to having certain things done at the convenience of their home, at the safety of their home," he said.

"This is a business model that certainly is expanding in different areas, and healthcare is one of them."

Sebag said Avvy has already logged a few thousand users since launching last spring, some as young as 17, and recruited around 50 health-care workers, many of whom left the public health system to work in the private sector.

"If there's a nurse that wants to work full time for Avvy, she has that ability to do so through the application. She wants to work a few hours a month, that option is also available. So we're not necessarily competing with anyone. We're just trying to give a different option to people who want it," Sebag said.

The launch of the app comes as the province is trying to come up with innovative ideas to desperately retain health workers in the public health-care system amid staffing shortages driven in large part by burnout. One of those ideas was bonuses of $5,000 offered to nurses who returned to the public network in certain regions (in Montreal, the bonus was $2,000).

Lou-Micah Castillo is one of the health-care workers who left the public system to join Avvy full-time in April after graduating in 2019 and starting his career as a licenced practical nurse in January 2020.

He said the flexibility of their business model was part of the reason for him joining the private health-care system.

"I still love what I'm doing," Castillo said in a phone interview Tuesday after making a house call in Blainville, Que. for a blood test.

"It's no secret the healthcare system is experiencing some serious challenges with the burnout and retention. And we see Avvy as one solution among many, that allows the patients to get the health care access, the access to the help that they need. It's really for their comfort, convenience, and accessibility," he said.

The Quebec Conservative Party has pledged that it would give the private sector a greater role in health-care delivery in the province. Meanwhile, the ruling CAQ party has promised to increase home care services if re-elected in the October election.