Updated on 6 March at 8.30pm Singapore time
DoctorPage, a Singapore-based online platform for booking doctors, has reached a milestone with 1,500 health practitioners now available for appointments. That’s more than 10 percent of its list of 12,500 doctors — an achievement that the company says strengthens “its market leader position in Singapore”.
Not all of its 1,500 doctors are available for instant booking however, as the majority of them prefer to have DoctorPage input the appointment booking into a proprietary CRM system that is accessible by the doctor. To make these bookings, users would have to call DoctorPage’s concierge service.
While it has certainly excelled on the supply side of the equation, the real sign of its well-being lies on the demand side. Whether consumers are using the platform to find and book doctors will determine if health practitioners will continue to pay a monthly subscription fee to use its real time booking system. Read more
DocDoc, an online platform that enables patients to make instant appointments with doctors, has announced last week the hiring of Jon Samsel as its new CMO. Jon has been charged with growing the company’s global brand as it expands to South Korea and beyond.
Jon, who moved from Los Angeles to Singapore, was previously a co-founder of Heardable, a big data analytics startup. Prior to that, he was the senior VP of digital marketing for Bank of America, as well as the managing director of Roadloans, a division of Ford Motor Company. At DocDoc, he reports directly to CTO John Sharp. Read more
The Mongolian government has partnered with Singapore’s Borderless Healthcare Group to improve rural healthcare through the use of mobile technology. The initiative is dubbed the ‘Medical Silk Road’.
This partnership aims to give Mongolia’s rural clinics access to mobile healthcare services, connecting them to medical services, expertise, and knowledge from around the world.
Announced by the firm today, the first plank of this Medical Silk Road will be the BabySmart mobile app, aimed at helping women achieve better health before during and after pregnancy.
The app gives them access to educational modules. They can also consult remotely with nutritionists, physiologists, and doctors from home, attend virtual yoga and aerobic workouts, and join webinars by gynecological experts.
The first phase of the private-public partnership commences in Q1 2013.
Mongolia is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The emerging economy’s GDP has grown by 17.3% in 2011 and 6.4% in 2010. However, 22.4% of the country’s 2.9M population live below USD 1.25 a day, which is roughly equivalent to the Philippines.
The Borderless Healthcare Group is founded by Dr Wei Siang Yu. According to CNBC, the firm is a multi-million dollar player in the medical tourism industry. It has developed medical call centers, interactive health content, medical resorts, and consumer-centric health services.
Photo: United Nations
The United States is backwards when it comes to healthcare. It spends 15.2% of its GDP on medical services, the highest in the world, and yet ranks 50th in life expectancy. Remote health monitoring is one solution, since it enables patients to be taken cared of at home without needing to pay for expensive hospital stays.
Yet remote health monitoring is beset by lacks in connectivity standards, interoperability, and wireless monitoring devices. ConnectedHealth, a Singapore-based startup, aims to make wireless home health feasible.
The company, founded by Mike Holt, the CEO, and Hari Ramachandran, the VP for business development and technology, announced on 3 December that it has received USD530k from NRF-TIS incubator Get2Volume and US healthcare company Sovran. The technology incubator was also founded by Holt. Read more
DoctorPage, a web and mobile reservation platform that connects doctors with patients, announced today that it has received funding from several investors from around the world.
Aside from Michael Brehm, founder and managing director of Rebate Networks, other backers include:
Read more
Upping the competition in the business of connecting doctors to patients is DoctorPage.sg. Launching officially today in Singapore with already 11,500 doctors in its database, DoctorPage is a real-time online appointment-booking system where patients book instant appointments according to the type of doctor they want to see, their insurance type and location.
Combining European and Asian e-commerce experience
Somewhat similar to two-month old DocDoc, DoctorPage is founded and funded by a group of experienced entrepreneurs and investors from Europe. The founding team consists of Max and Daniel, both of whom worked together at deals site, DailyDeal in Berlin, which was acquired by Google in September 2011. Read more
The food industry in Singapore has undergone a revolution lately as online reservation services are making it easier for diners to get a restaurant table and beat the crowd.
Now, the healthcare industry in Asia could see a similar change as a multi-platform service called DocDoc makes its debut in Singapore. Lounging at a hotel room in the posh Fullerton Hotel, the team gave SGE a preview of the web app today. It enables patients to instantly search for the right doctor, look at their schedule and make an appointment right away, saving time and effort. The app will go live sometime this week.
Read more
Filed under Featured, Innovation & Technology, News, Technology, WebTags: Dave McClure, docdoc, grace park, hadi el solh, Health Technology, Healthcare, koh boon hwee, Korea, kylie ho, Singapore, South Korea
Medical tourism, defined as the practice of crossing borders for the purpose of getting healthcare, is huge. Patients Beyond Borders estimate the the global market size is around US$15 billion, based on roughly five million patients spending an average of US$3,000 per procedure.
But finding quality and affordable healthcare is like fumbling in a room blindfolded: There are so many service providers around, at varying levels of quality. Discerning which to pick becomes a repetitive chore.
Two startups, Singapore’s MediSherpa and Chicago and Taiwan-based HuliHealth, are determined to fix this. Both companies are building an extensive database of health care providers and doctors, listing their credentials, crowdsourced feedback, cost, addresses, and contact information. Read more
Mark John Buenconsejo is an elder statesman in the tech startup community in Cebu, Philippines. No, he’s not that old; at around 32 (he says he couldn’t remember exactly), he’s not far removed from the twenty somethings that predominate the scene.
But he is one of the most experienced. Formerly a freelance developer, his entrepreneurial journey started in 2002. He set up LearningToGo to create educational software for Palm PDAs, the now obsolete precursor to today’s touchscreen smartphones.
Thinking global from day one, it was one of the few software companies then that was developing in the Philippines and selling in the United States.
“Palm was big back then. They had an app store. They don’t require you to have a business address, so anyone can set up an account and submit their apps,” he says.
They developed their first app, a dictionary, for a competition. While they didn’t submit it in the end, they pushed it out to PalmGear, which was an app store. Within a month, they made 150,000 Pesos (US$3,000), enough to recoup development costs.
“No programmers developed dictionaries then. It was a very boring app,” he says. Read more
Well, in a way. The Unboxs Solutions team cheekily tells strangers that they are in the drug business; they are not lying. They have just launched their platform, MedF1 – connecting medical drug suppliers and buyers. Nothing illegal here, sorry to disappoint.
Founded by three schoolmates who each had gone on an immersive entrepreneurial programme across the world, Unboxs Solutions focuses on improving the efficiency of logistics and clinic operations within the medical industry. MedF1 helps medical practitioners search for and purchase drugs, medical devices and consumables, while enjoying cost savings. Read more
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