Getting telemedicine off the ground successfully

SINCE the Covid-19 pandemic began, routine doctor visits have become a little unnerving for some people. This has led to a surge in patients leveraging telemedicine services in Asia, with platforms such as MyDoc in Singapore seeing a 60 per cent rise in daily active users even back in February 2020. This figure doubled the next month in March.

It is worth noting that even before the pandemic hit, telemedicine was on the upswing. Driven by a shortage of medical professionals and rising costs, healthcare institutions have started implementing remote services, especially for low-risk, high-volume clinical tasks such as GP consultations for minor ailments and prescription refills.

Telemedicine can not only help manage the sector's talent shortage by freeing up resources, it also can make healthcare more accessible to patients with mobility issues, or those residing in rural areas. Increased accessibility is also important in driving early intervention and diagnosis, which contributes to better long-term patient outcomes and lower public health costs.