Since Mexican medical network Salud Interactiva introduced a telephone medical assistance service in the country over 20 years ago, it has received over 10 million medical calls from people seeking medical advice for ordinary ailments and emergencies.
The service today still gives medical service via the phone 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, and is even expanding its global presence.
Yondu, a subsidiary of Globe Telecom, is introducing innovative health services model in the Philippines in partnership with Salud Interactiva to address the pain points in Philippine healthcare.
KonsultaMD, the new 50-50 joint venture of Yondu and Salud Interactiva, set up a 24/7 health hotline service manned by skilled and licensed doctors who provide medical assessment and advice, including basic healthcare and permissible medication over the phone.
Gil B. Genio, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Business and International Markets, Globe Telecom, said the growing population (of over 100 million) is putting further pressure to an already strained healthcare landscape which is suffering from lack of experienced healthcare professionals, under-resourced public hospitals, poor health infrastructure and limited accessibility. He said the country has only about 70,000 practicing doctors or a relatively small ratio of .7 doctors per 1,000 people.
“Throw in long wait times and the high cost of medical consultation which further discourage people from seeking medical advice and instead push them towards self-medication," he said.
“We envision the health hotline to provide easy access to medical advice and more efficient health care because it costs significantly less to talk to a doctor than a personal visit, thus, we are confident that through this revolutionary service, we would be able to address many challenges facing the industry."
Jorge Aspuro, Salud Interactiva Chief Operating Officer and KonsultaMD Chief Operating Advisor, said the service could be highly beneficial to Filipinos given the similar scenario of the Philippines and Mexico in so far as health services and infrastructure are concerned.
“The idea of creating a medical call center in Mexico came about after one of our founders used a telephone medical service during a trip to the US. There was at that time, an enormous number of patients in Mexico that could be assisted in a different way without following the traditional medical assistance. That experience led to the creation of Salud Interactiva and the medical hotline service called MedicallHome," he said.
In bringing highly successful telephone medical assistance to the Philippines, Aspuro said it gathered licensed and skilled to evaluate the patients’ medical conditions based on symptoms.
Dr. Gia Sison, KonsultaMD’s Chief Medical Officer, said that the service is not affiliated with any hospital or pharmaceutical company. It is bound by the laws of telemedicine which means it can only advise permissible over the counter medications.
“We do not give antibiotics, narcotics or issue medical certificates. Our doctors are only there to give medical advice and guidance,” she said.
The service would also use the reference protocol based on the Cleveland Clinic telehealth standard in the US. This means that doctors will give almost the same assessment or advice as long as the caller provides them with the same symptoms, manifestation, and other information.
“The whole goal of this system is access to healthcare because we believe that healthcare is a right. We also do triaging, so we know when to refer to the nearest emergency room or to a primary or secondary healthcare center. We emphasize, however, that nothing can replace a face-to-face consultation with doctors,” she explained further.
Genio said that the initiative follows the way telecommunications companies worldwide are transforming healthcare.
“Through information and communications technology (ICT), telecom companies are able to provide practical solutions for the cost-effective provision of modern healthcare. Among the telecom companies already offering such services include Vodafone (USA), AT&T (USA), Telmex (Mexico), Orange Telecom (France), Turkcell (Africa), Telefonica (Spain), Airtel (India), Grameenphone (Bangladesh), MTN (Africa), and STC (South Africa),” he said.
As early as 2012, Globe already saw a potentially significant opportunity to improve access to quality healthcare using technological advances.
One of the company’s efforts in the healthcare sector is Globe HealthCloud, an end-to-end web-based health ICT solution that enables real-time, secure and convenient access to health information.
Globe also tied up with ACCESS Health to provide fast and efficient access to maternal and child care services as well as with the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) for a mobile communications campaign that provides information and referrals to HIV counseling, testing and life-saving treatment programs.