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DrHouse wants to make everyday healthcare as effortless as ordering a meal. Built with an Estonian tech team operating in the US, the company blends instant access to clinicians, rapid prescription fulfilment, and pragmatic use of AI. We spoke with the CEO & co-founder Ergo Sooru about the problem they set out to solve, what scales in telehealth, and where they’re headed.
What problem did you see, and how did Estonia’s digital culture shape your approach to telehealth?
We met patients frustrated by long waits, access barriers and inefficient processes. Everyday issues, from minor acute illnesses to routine management of chronic conditions, often require multiple trips and too much time. Consumers are now used to on-demand experiences; food-delivery apps have redefined expectations. Why shouldn’t caring for everyday health needs be just as convenient? That thinking led to DrHouse — effectively a ‘DoorDash for healthcare’ offering on-demand physician visits and prescription delivery.
Estonia’s digital culture has influenced our mindset since day one. Coming from a place where secure data exchange and digital identity are regular, we built for speed and simplicity without compromising privacy or clinical standards.
You’re piloting near-instant prescription delivery. What did it take to get medicines to patients in roughly an hour, and what’s been the impact on adherence?
It’s been our core idea and the hardest to execute technically and regulatorily. The US prescribing landscape is complex. Many organisations and pharmacies still rely on fax and phone; a prescription can typically be collected only from the pharmacy to which the clinician sends it. Add HIPAA privacy requirements and the operational challenge of coordinating couriers, pharmacies, and clinicians in real time. Despite the hurdles, adherence and feedback have been excellent, especially for parents with small children, older people and people with disabilities. Instead of a clinic visit, a waiting room, a pharmacy trip and a drive home, most everyday health concerns can be addressed within about an hour, without leaving the house.
Where does automation or AI add the most value in your care model and how do you safeguard quality and safety?
In our experience, AI adds the greatest value during the consultation by drafting documentation, plans and prescriptions. That substantially reduces the time physicians spend per visit. Importantly, clinicians retain full control and final say.
We don’t triage patients with AI. Patients see a list of available physicians for their condition and can choose and keep a preferred doctor. While AI-led intake can reach physician-level answers for many everyday concerns, differential-diagnosis workflows are still too slow and frustrating for patients, so we don’t consider them viable today. We see promise in AI-supported follow-ups and reminders for chronic care, but the most substantial return on investment right now is in documentation.
Interoperability matters. How do you connect to pharmacies and health systems and what should governments copy to modernise digital health?
DrHouse tech team is in Estonia, so we’ve seen how great data exchange can work. Estonia’s e-prescribing, built on X-Road and e-ID, lets patients collect medicines from any pharmacy, with secure information exchange as standard. By contrast, in the US and many other markets, prescriptions are tied to a specific pharmacy, and information still flows via fax and phone far more than it should. We’ve adapted Estonian principles, secure exchange and patient control, to the US’s legacy infrastructure.
The lesson for governments: invest in trusted digital identity, standardised e-prescribing and secure, interoperable data rails. Once those exist, innovation accelerates. We’ve generated a long list of product ideas simply from working around the gaps we’ve found.
You’ve started taking major insurance plans and trialled no-cost visits in some markets. What pricing and coverage model actually scales?
DrHouse offered no-cost visits to test the initial platform. At scale, two models make sense. For everyday health concerns, acute issues and chronic-care management, insurance is essential. For wellness and lifestyle needs where insurers don’t participate (weight loss, hair loss, beauty and similar), a subscription model works well. Our primary focus is everyday health, so long-term sustainability means integrating with insurers, with subscriptions as a strong adjunct for wellness.
Beyond the US, which markets look realistic next and what policy prerequisites must be in place?
At DrHouse we look for three things: competition among health insurers (and sensible rates), available systems (e.g., e-prescribing and e-ID) and regulatory stability. On that basis, the UAE is our most realistic next entry, with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and select EU markets also aligning. The UAE already uses several government systems developed by Estonians and Estonian companies; combined with insurer competition and stable regulation, it’s an attractive market.
