HEALTHCARE INSIGHT: HEALTH TECHNOLOGY
The Asia Pacific healthcare market is expected to grow 19% by 2026, according to data from Hong Kong Trade and Development Council.
Doctor’s orders: The rise and rise of Asia’s healthtech industry With Asia poised to be the world’s largest healthcare market, can specialist health technology help to chip away at entrenched inequalities?
W
henever Andy needed to consult a doctor, he used to endure a long and stuffy motorcycle ride through Jakarta’s infamous, traffic-clogged streets. On a good day, it would take him at least an hour to get to his doctor’s appointment from his house in the outskirts of the city. Now, these difficult rides are a thing of the past—all Andy has to do to get medical advice is to open an app in his smartphone, where he can talk to a doctor in real time. Andy is just one among thousands of Asian patients who have benefitted from the rise in healthtech. Across Asia, digital technology is changing how patients access healthcare services, with telemedicine emerging as a rapidly growing mode of diagnosis and treatment. As sprawling urban centres become increasingly 16
HEALTHCARE ASIA
congested, telemedicine companies are delivering doctor visits and medication without delay. “What we have observed is that there are many companies on the healthtech bandwagon today, offering a wide range of personalised patient services,” notes Sejal Mistry, Country Director, ACCESS Health International. “Thanks to the work some companies have done to personalise patient services, a patient can wake up in the morning and receive a text message reminding them of their doctor appointment or their daily medication intake. If the individual visits the doctor for tests, they can now receive the results via a mobile app before they even make it home, and they can subsequently set up a telehealth appointment to go through the results with their physician in more detail.”
Companies that can harness large and varied datasets will have a leg up in tomorrow’s data-driven economy.
The doctor is online “We’re seeing more companies in Southeast Asia with tools that make it easier for healthcare workers to provide best-in-class care, efficiently. Companies like Health Catalyst, which just expanded to Asia Pacific last year, bring expertise from some of the most well-known healthcare systems in the US, along with a data operating system that analyses data from across sources, to give hospital administrators and unit heads practical insights and a stepwise approach to improving care and cutting costs. Lifetrack Medical Systems and Alem Health are addressing the radiologist shortage with AI and a global network of radiologists, whilst Biorithm is using IoT to improve maternity care,” Mistry notes. Figures from the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council
