Telemedicine is the big health care game changer to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, say experts

The concept, in which patients interact with a doctor by phone or video, must be used sensibly, in tandem with traditional offline health care, say panellists on a webinar

Digital health can play a role in providing the care patients need while minimising the transmission risk of infectious diseases like Covid-19

Reading Time:2 minutes

The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the benefits of remote medical consultations, where there is no risk of transmission. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 6:45am, 31 Jul 2020Updated: 7:00am, 31 Jul 2020

Telemedicine, in which a doctor’s appointment happens over phone or video, could be the health care game changer to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. But a perfect marriage with offline services is needed to make the system work efficiently, say experts in the health care industry.

“Due to Covid-19, people have noticed that a lot of things could be done online. But health care is unique. There is still a large portion of services needed to be done offline,” said Jeff Chen, chief innovation officer of Fullerton Healthcare Corporation.

“When we talk about online health care, we never talk about purely online health care. We are talking about how to leverage online services to make the whole health care service better.”

Fullerton is an online platform founded nine years ago in Singapore that provides health care facilities across nine markets in Asia-Pacific.

Chen was speaking in a webinar on a new blueprint for health care systems, co-presented by the South China Morning Post and the Milken Institute Asia Centre on July 30.

When there is more advanced hardware, the proportion of online services will increase, said Chen. Rearranging a consultation after seeing a doctor in person, seeking a second opinion, and getting referrals are all functions that can be efficiently delivered through telemedicine, he said.

In May, his company launched a free Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled Covid-19 symptom checker and an in-app chat function that allows users to interact with Fullerton’s team members about their coronavirus-related concerns. The services were launched in Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.