Stéphanie Hervier (EDHEC 2008) has launched Medaviz, providing medical advice at the click of a mouse.

EDHEC Alumni : Can you tell us about your career so far? 

Stéphanie Hervier : Stéphanie Hervier: I came to EDHEC in 2004 where I joined the Chti team. I completed my year away as a product marketing intern with Henkel and then Danone. Once I graduated, I left for California to join Frial, an agri-food business. When I returned to France in late 2009, I joined the Marketing & Communication team at the consultancy firm BearingPoint, which I left at the end of 2014.

EA : How did your entrepreneurial project come about?

SH : My brother worked for 10 years as an accountant and an auditor, during which time he met Jean, a doctor who was working for a company offering domestic hospital care. Jean mentioned the idea of a website offering medical advice, which he felt addressed a real need within the French population. We have studied the market, which shows real promise. 55% of French people say that in the past they have decided not to seek care because of the waiting times for appointments, and 1 out of 4 French people say that having visited a doctor they felt afterwards it was unnecessary! 

EA : Can you tell us about your company? 

SH : Medaviz is an online platform offering medical advice. It puts individuals in contact with health professionals (GPs, specialists and paramedics) who are available in real time 7 days a week to offer personal and reliable medical information. Medaviz provides answers to all kinds of everyday health enquiries:
- an initial medical opinion can be obtained if you have to wait too long for an appointment with a health professional or because you lack time or are abroad (holidays, expats, etc.)
- additional reliable information about a diagnosis, treatment or symptom 
- support in self-medicating - and the possibility to discuss delicate matters which may be easier to address over the phone than in person. Our objectives are as follows: reduce the number of unnecessary consultations, provide an alternative to A&E in overcrowded hospitals, offer French people greater responsibility in the procedure for seeking medical care, etc.. A video clip providing a summary is available her. 

Our target is B2B: insurance companies, which we hope will offer the service to their clients (allowing them to stand out, especially with the national collective agreement and the developing market for professionals); and companies, which we hope will offer the service to their employees (improving well-being in the workplace and as a way of combating occupational stress and absenteeism).

EA : What are your prospects for growth?

SH  : e-health is enjoying particularly strong growth. In 2012 the market was estimated to be worth €2.4 billion and is expected to expand by an average of 4% to 7% annually between now and 2017. The revenue generated by e-health specialists is also expected to rise at an average pace of around 10% over the same timeframe. And just in terms of telemedicine, Syntec Numérique, a professional trade union for digital companies, has evaluated the telemedicine market in France at between 80 and 140 million euros.

EA : Have you ever benefited from the network of EDHEC graduates?

SH : Not much so far, but I intend to. Several major top executives in French companies went to EDHEC, and I hope to have the opportunity to meet them. 

More information

> stephanie.hervier@medaviz.com
> www.medaviz.com.fr 
> Follow Medaviz on Twitter