This startup has developed an app to help tackle erectile dysfunction among men

A group of three young entrepreneurs have developed an app that seeks to tackle one of the most embarrassing challenges many men face — erectile dysfunction(ED).

CEO Zachariah Reitano alongside co-founders Rob Schutz and Saman Rahmanian are the brains behind Roman, an app that will screen you for ED, let you talk one-on-one with doctors, and even get prescriptions delivered to your door — all without ever leaving your house.

You’ll be required to provide a recent blood pressure reading — and if you haven’t had one in the past six months it’ll direct you to get one before you proceed. A physician reviews your info, and if you’re a candidate for drugs, you’ll be issued a prescription and can order the medicine right in the app.

It's a web app that starts by asking you questions about your general health and lifestyle and then offers tailored follow-up questions, depending on how you answer.

It will be delivered right to your door in discreet packaging — in something that looks more like an iPhone box than something from Walgreens. You can also sign up for automatic refills, and if you have questions, you can message or video chat with one of the doctors at any time.

If it’s determined that something more serious might be going on, you’re referred to a local clinic for an in-person check-up. For the time being, Roman is only available in New York, California, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

Teenage life

For Zachariah, the invention of Roman is more of a personal mission having struggled with erectile dysfunction since he was a teenager. It turned out to be one of the first signs that he was suffering from serious heart problems.

He was however lucky in that his dad was a physician specializing in sexual health. So he was able to talk openly with him about what was happening and his father recognized it as a signal that something more critical was up.

“It’s something that men care about enough in the present enough to research, enough to Google. Whereas if we just started with something like hypertension or cholesterol, it’s often not something that someone wakes up with and affects their day to day life, even though it’s incredibly important," he says.

Viagra

While this could look on the surface like simply a place to get a free-flowing supply of recreational Viagra, that’s not the intended reality. If you’re not having any issues with maintaining an erection, drugs like Cialis and Viagra aren’t really going to do much to enhance your sexual experience.

That’s a real problem because about 80 percent of the Viagra bought online is actually counterfeit and is often contaminated by things you definitely shouldn’t be swallowing — like paint.

Of course, Roman is not aiming to replace a doctor entirely, and there may be plenty of cases in which it's either more cost effective or medically more sound to go through an IRL physician.

Ultimately,by developing this app, Reitano hopes to crush the stigma surrounding ED.

“It's important that people don't see themselves as, 'Oh I'm a guy with ED,' he said. "Rather, they're just a guy with a hurdle that this company would love nothing more than to do something about."