Tech players in healthcare, finance sectors should have no excuses for falling foul of regulators 

[SINGAPORE] Tech startups typically receive some leeway from regulators, so as not to snuff out innovation. But for those operating in highly regulated sectors such as healthcare and finance, there should certainly be a higher bar. And technology providers in these sectors should not hope to be shielded from the regulators’ gaze.

A case in point is the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) recent admonishment of telemedicine platform MaNaDr. MOH had stripped MaNaDr of its clinic licence in December last year, after investigations uncovered short teleconsultations of a minute or less and case notes that were sparse and brief. MaNaDr would go on to close its clinic on Dec 24, 2024.

But in a briefing on Apr 2, MaNaDr sought to distance itself from its clinic business and instead focus on its role as a tech platform.