Attributed to Dr. Sudihichai Chokekijchai, Head of Medical
One of the many lessons learnt from the coronavirus pandemic is the importance of triaging the right care at the right time to lessen the strain on already limited healthcare resources. In a situation where there is a shortage in hospital beds because of the rampant spread of the virus, medical attention necessarily focused on treating affected patients and protecting others from infection. This was done to make sure that the already limited availability of healthcare resources is preserved for severe cases. At the same time, due to the fear of infection, non-Covid patients often chose to postpone medical appointments as they try to avoid crowds at traditional healthcare facilities. As a result, there has been a noticeable decline in the number of non-Covid-related patients seeking medical help.
However, we know that prevention is better than cure, and early treatment is better than late treatment. These postponed visits to the doctor may have reduced the immediate stress on the capacity of facilities, but they also may cause a deferral of demand in essential services. Postponing treatment often leads to an escalation in the severity of cases, which can further drive up the healthcare costs of managing more advanced stages of illness. This is why there is a pressing need for both the healthcare industry and patients to reconsider the accessibility of timely healthcare services, without overburdening healthcare facilities, both in a pandemic situation and beyond.
As a telehealth practitioner and a believer in digitally-backed health technologies that put people back in control of their health, I actively advocate for a more rapid and nationwide adoption of telemedicine solutions for general health and wellness management instead of only treating telemedicine services as a pandemic novelty. Both healthcare providers and patients need to increase their digital engagement, as well as their level of comfort and confidence in virtual consultations. Doctors should identify those individuals who can be supported remotely, and people who need a routine visit to the hospital should know that there is an option for receiving their ongoing care virtually through digital health mobile application services. I believe that telemedicine will play a significant role in improving proactive management and medical support of patients with existing conditions, especially in chronic care management such as hypertension or diabetes (the top 2 non-communicable diseases in Thailand). With the continued use of telemedicine, such patients can be better guided on how to monitor their condition carefully and avoid further complications in their condition.
Beyond those with chronic diseases, telemedicine users can also benefit from virtual care services by increasing their wellness status and becoming better informed about their overall health. Telemedicine provides patients with an opportunity to talk to the doctor and receive health advice on how to stay well and healthy. However, for telemedicine to truly become integral in our everyday lives, we need wider public education initiatives that can increase the knowledge and drive greater awareness of the accessibility of healthcare services in the digital age. With wider awareness of the new opportunities, more people in Thailand will be empowered to take better care of their overall health status proactively. This will help move away from the current reactive approach of only speaking to a doctor when patients are already fallen ill, or when their self-managed symptoms are not improving. Telemedicine and virtual healthcare services have the potential to transform the way people manage their health, especially given the increased convenience and accessibility of talking to a doctor through digital health apps. For example, at Good Doctor, our users can connect with our in-house doctors within 60 seconds without any prior appointment booking requirements. The availability of immediate consultation and the accessibility of connecting with a doctor is what can help people avoid falling ill before consulting with a doctor about their condition.
I wish to particularly emphasise the key benefit of time sensitivity of delivering healthcare services through telemedicine services. Time is a multifaceted issue; on the one hand, getting the necessary medicine prescribed and dispensed to a patient is often a matter of utmost urgency. Take, for example, the whole process of communication for online consultation, updates of prescriptions and arranging to dispense medicines. For these crucial processes, telemedicine can be indispensable, not only in terms of relieving pressure on hospital facilities, but also in terms of saving the patients’ time. If you are a working professional in Thailand, taking time off work to make a trip to the hospital can already cause a mental burden — it requires pre-planning to accommodate for time away from the office, and then traveling to the hospital and waiting in lines. All of these barriers are avoidable, particularly in the respect that prescriptions can be updated online, and medicines can be promptly dispensed and delivered directly to the patient’s address.
At Good Doctor Technology Thailand, we understand that these advantages of telemedicine can only be fully leveraged with a proper infrastructural support. In my example of dispensing and instantly delivering medicines to the patients under our care at Good Doctor, speed of delivery largely depends on the size of the pharmacy network. The more pharmacies we are connected to in different locations, the faster it is for patients to receive their medication at their doorsteps.. This is why Good Doctor Technology Thailand patients can easily connect with our in-house doctors to begin their live chat text-based conversation within 60 seconds, receive a diagnosis and recommended treatment plan within 15 minutes, and have their medication delivered to their hands within the hour. Our fast medication delivery model is made possible by our large, ever-expanding network of pharmacies across Thailand — with over 300 merchants across 40 provinces currently.
There are many categories of healthcare management where telemedicine services can supplement people’s existing care plan, particularly in monitoring and providing ongoing treatment of existing conditions. However, we should recognize that telemedicine will not replace traditional modes of healthcare. At Good Doctor, patients under our care can also visit our in-house full-time doctors physically at our offline clinic for further examination as required or be referred to hospitals under our network when needed. Through telemedicine, while patients can easily get connected to a doctor to seek trustworthy medical advice on how to maintain their health conditions or manage their health status, they should follow their doctor’s advice to seek further assessment at secondary healthcare settings when required.
As the prevalence of telemedicine increases in Thailand and more are turning to digital health tools to manage their health status proactively, I hope to see an increased willingness of all stakeholders to embrace digital health technologies and benefit from its advantages. For the employees of companies that subscribe to our services, we offer not only unlimited consultation on both sick care and wellness-related consultation with doctors, but also immediate access to our time-saving healthcare solutions. And in healthcare, time is a critical resource and is always of the essence.
