A telehealth services provider funded nearly entirely by physicians has raised about $4 million in new funding.

The companyFruit Street Telehealthalso has signed St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., as a new client. The company, founded in New York in 2014, will use the new funding to continue to grow its joint venture with VSee, a developer of group video chat and screen-sharing software that can be used over consumer video platforms such as Skype.

Fruit Street develops and markets a telehealth service that lets hospitals and group practices monitor patient health, diet and lifestyle decisions remotely and online.

The bulk of the $4 million in new working capital primarily came from about 60 individual physicians, says Fruit Street CEO Laurence Girard. We would prefer to raise $25 million of funding if needed from 500 physicians investing $50,000 each while benefiting from their advice, rather than having only a few venture capitalists as investors that gave us the same amount of investment, Girard says.

Fruit Street says it uses social media such as LinkedIn to pitch physicians to invest in the company and claims to raise an average of $220,000 each month. The more physicians we have participating in our medical think tank, promoting the product with their colleagues, and investing in Fruit Street, the stronger our company will become, Girard says.

To date the company has raised about $7.4 million in total funding, Girard says. Some of the new funding also will be used and to fund more clinical trials, Girard says.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will use Fruit Street as part of a pediatric telehealth weight management pilot. The Fruit Street telehealth platform will allow registered dietitian nutritionists at St. Jude to conduct secure online video consultations with patients and monitor their diet and exercise using a mobile app that allows patients to take pictures of their food, the company says.

The telehealth pilot will be 12 weeks with patients who are 8 years or older and are at risk of becoming or are overweight as diagnosed by a dietitian. Patients who agree to participate will have a baseline nutrition visit where specific and measurable food goals will be identified, Fruit Street says. Body composition will be measured using a wireless scale and another wireless devices that track the patients resting energy expenditure. A goal sheet will be developed and given to the patient and goals will be tracked online, Fruit Street says.