ASIA HEALTH CARE UPDATE
Bumrumgrad International Hospital
Launches Telemedicine Consultations
Soft launched in April 2019,
“Bumrungrad Anywhere” is a new
timesaving app that allows new
and old patients to access tele-
medicine consulting services
from more than 200 doctors at
Bumrungrad Hospital said David
Thomas Boucher, chief business
transformation officer. The app
was not only jointly developed
with Singapore-based medical
technology company iDoctor,
but with another $3 million in-
vestment, the hospital now wel-
comes the company’s founder
and CEO Jaren Siew as the
hospital’s newest chief digital As the average consultation at the
officer.
hospital averages US$200, the
$15 (500 baht) consultation deliv-
The timesaving app not only al- ers a quality service at a reason-
lows residents in the capital to able price. Within this year, this
access medical advice, but pa- app will also be used to provide
tients nationwide and even in the pre-surgery second opinions and
region have had the chance to talk post-surgery follow-ups.
to a doctor they select within three
minutes via a video or phone call In addition to this app, there are
ranging from specialists in neurol- other services included such as
ogy to internal medicine. By the the retail pharmaceutical deliver-
end of the year, it is hoped than ies which will be made by a net-
more than 1,600 doctors will join work of motorcycles operated by
this platform.
the hospital within a 10 kilometer
radius of the hospital, and has
The app can simply be download- plans widen its scope in the future
ed from Apple or Google Play over all of greater Bangkok.
stores. There is a two way com-
munication in having patients type The goal of this app is not about
in their symptoms to receive profit, but creating stickiness to
consultations, but this app also consumers, and giving the hospital
grants patients access to their in edge in being able to offer con-
own medical history. Security is sumers what they want in the world
provided by sending TOP verifica- of ‘instaculture’ where demand for
tion to their mobile phones.
service has to be faster than ever.
Source: “Bumrungrad International Hospital shocks the market with $15 telemedicine consultations”, Arianna Danganan, 1 July 2019, Healthcare Asia
Universal Healthcare Granted to Registered
Migrant Workers in Thailand
As a regional leader in offering
universal public health (UHC)
since 2002 when Thailand was
still an lower middle income
country with a per capita gross
domestic product of just $1,870,
various UHC programs have
since been constantly updated
to provide greater coverage.
Moreover, measures are being
taken to make it available to all
migrant workers in the future
despite rising medical costs.
Though Thailand is still not a
wealthy country, nearly all 69.81
million Thais are insured by one
of three types of public health
insurance programs. Govern-
ment employees and their de-
pendents (8% of the population)
are under the tax-financed civil
servant medical benefit scheme.
Employees in the private sector
(17%) are enrolled in the social
health insurance scheme fi-
nanced by payroll taxes. The rest
of the population (75%) amount-
ing to 49 million people rely on
the basic UHC program.
Presently, approximately 1 - 1.2
million documented immigrants
have coverage under the social one including 1.5 million undoc- and Vietnam, who registered by
health insurance system. Soon, umented immigrants, primarily the Ministry of Public Health in
UHC will be extended to every- from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, 2018.
Source: “Migrant workers gain access to universal healthcare in Thailand”, staff reporters, 1 July 2019, Healthcare Asia
6 PharMed & HealthCare
SEPTEMBER 2019