An Oklahoma City company, a Wyoming medical doctor and the founder of Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. have put together a network they believe makes medical help a phone call away.

The Dial-a-Doc™ service was started about three years ago as DocTalk, Inc. by Dr. Brent Blue, a Jackson Hole, Wyo., physician. "We're the only service where people can call from any telephone in the country and speak to a physician in about 60 seconds," Blue said. Research shows that about 70 percent of all doctor visits are for information only, Blue said. Statistics like that and experiences in his own practice led him to develop the medical telephone concept.

Why not put together a network of medical doctors who would staff telephone lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week? People could call with a prepaid telephone card and receive the information for $2 a minute, he imagined - and implemented.

Blue, 48, now promotes his Dial-a-Doc™ more and practices medicine less.

Along his journey, he learned about Pre-Paid Legal, the Ada-based company that makes legal help from just a phone call away. Pre-Paid was started 25 years ago but became a hot stock on Wall Street last year when it sold $76.7 million in premiums with a net income of $18.8 million.

Blue decided to contact Pre-Paid founder Harland Stonecipher and see if there might be any interest in marketing his program along with the Pre-Paid services.

Stonecipher saw a more logical link.

He is on the board of directors of Oklahoma City-based Advantage Marketing Systems Inc. That company was founded by Stonecipher's longtime friend John W. Hail, chairman and chief executive.

Advantage is a small cap stock company that markets weight management, dietary supplement and personal care products through a network marketing organization. Independent distributors purchase the herbal health products for resale to retail customers as well as for their personal use.

The company currently has about 32,600 distributors, and all of them now have Dial-a-Doc™ phone cards as a distributor benefit, said Roger Baresel, Advantage president.

The plan is to offer the Dial-a-Doc™ program free for two months on a trial basis, which began May 1."We hope our distributors will use it (Dial-a-Doc™) for their own personal use," he said of the initial offering. "The basis of our company is to provide people with more control over their health."

Thus, the two services dovetail and could work well together in the future, he said.

A nurse practitioner call line has been available for about 14 years, but not one that offers physicians, Baresel said.Baresel said his company has been impressed with the quality of the physicians participating in the Dial-a-Doc™ program and with the research Blue has done.

"Their typical physician is 40 to 60 years old with quite a bit of experience in family medicine or emergency room," he said.

"We have faith that they have the ability to adequately ask the right questions to be sure people get the advice they need.

"What kind of calls does the service typically get?

They are from mothers anxious about their babies, people wondering whether they should see a doctor and others concerned about medication they may or may not be taking.

But there are those that one might not expect. "We've had high school students call who are working on term papers on health care issues," Blue said.

And there's the issue of current events: "Calls pretty much reflect what's happening in the news.

"When (the television program) 60 minutes does a big story on Halcyon, we get a lot of calls on Halcyon," he said. As for hypochondriacs who may abuse the hot line, "We feel we can help that population by giving them as much as possible. Every time they call us, they may be avoiding an unnecessary trip to the emergency room or doctor," he said.

Blue has been a medical doctor since 1976. He has an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and a medical degree from the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

His DocTalk corporate office is in Jackson Hole with a "virtual call room." The phone may ring there, but the call is processed through Denver and sent to wherever in the country a physician is on phone duty. The doctor who answers may be across the country or across the street from the caller.

What about calls from Advantage Marketing Systems distributors, people who are normally selling nontraditional herbal remedies?

"We are essentially a very nontraditional form of medicine," Blue said. "We have attracted doctors to work for us who are nontraditional. Most are pretty accepting and willing to try alternative therapies."

As for Advantage Marketing, Baresel said his company will be assessing the Dial-a-Doc™ program over the next two months to determine where to go next with a marketing plan.

"From talking to Dr. Blue, we estimate the price will be no more than $3 to $4 a month for unlimited access to the service," Baresel said. Until then, he just hopes his 32,600 distributors enjoy using their new Dial-a-Doc™ cards - enough to want to buy the service and sell to others.