So, the federal government has kicked off a text messaging campaign aimed at arming expectant mothers with pregnancy related health information. If the news item got you thinking of creating bigger and better ways to leverage SMS technology in an effort to bridge the gap between medical experts and health information consumers, you’re probably onto something.

Take, for instance, Truth on Call, a San Francisco-based startup that began targeting everyone from patients to journalists to pharamaceutical executives in January with a paid service that puts anyone with a medical question in touch with their very own panel of physicians—via text.
 
As The New York Times reports, the company assembles the group virtually, by letting people text questions to physicians and then collecting the doctors’ responses. Right now, the service is open to the healthcare industry, financial firms and the media, but we can expect the company to target health care consumers in the coming months.
 
Truth on Call’s founder, Rosina Samadani, says the service offers a way for people to get answers from thousands of physicians in minutes or hours.

It also offers a compelling pricing model: those asking questions pay a minimum of $50 to ask one question of one doctor, although at this point it is only open to those who want to pose questions to large groups, because of the cost to the company. Doctors receive $10 for each question they answer, and Truth On Call will send the checks to their address or to a charity of their choosing. The fees for asking questions can add up fast. Texting 100 doctors with a 24-hour response time costs $5,000, covering the doctors’ $10 fees plus text-messaging fees and payment to Truth On Call.

While the average health care consumer may only use the service occasionally, think of the potential B2B applications as pharmaceutical companies, insurance carriers, law firms and others turn to the service. I'm filing this one under 'W,' for why didn't I think of that.