Searching for Service Providers based on Consumer Symptoms

One or more machine-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable by one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a request from a consumer of medical services to consult with a medical service provider, with the request comprising one or more terms indicative of one or more symptoms of the consumer;
• processing the terms to establish one or more symptoms of the consumer of medical services;
• accessing a data repository that stores information pertaining to medical service providers, including present availability of the medical service providers for participating in a consultation and qualifications of the medical service providers;
• determining which of the medical service providers are presently available;
• identifying, from the qualifications of the presently available medical service providers and the one or more terms included in the request, one or more medical service providers appropriate to consult with the consumer regarding the consumer's determined one or more symptoms;
• transmitting, to a device used by the consumer, information indicative of the identified one or more medical service providers appropriate to consult with the consumer regarding the consumer's one or more symptoms;
• receiving a selection from the consumer of one of the identified one or more medical service providers appropriate to consult with the consumer regarding the consumer's one or more symptoms;
• and
• establishing a communication channel between the device used by the consumer and a device used by the selected medical service provider.

A system comprising:

• one or more processing devices;
• and
• one or more machine-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a request from a consumer of medical services to consult with a medical service provider, with the request comprising one or more terms indicative of one or more symptoms of the consumer;
• processing the terms to establish one or more symptoms of the consumer of medical services;
• accessing a data repository that stores information pertaining to medical service providers, including present availability of the medical service providers for participating in a consultation and qualifications of the medical service providers;
• determining which of the medical service providers are presently available;
• identifying, from the qualifications of the presently available medical service providers and the one or more terms included in the request, one or more medical service providers appropriate to consult with the consumer regarding the consumer's determined one or more symptoms;
• transmitting, to a device used by the consumer, information indicative of the identified one or more medical service providers appropriate to consult with the consumer regarding the consumer's one or more symptoms;
• receiving a selection from the consumer of one of the identified one or more medical service providers appropriate to consult with the consumer regarding the consumer's one or more symptoms;
• and
• establishing a communication channel between the device used by the consumer and a device used by the selected medical service provider.