Name: The doctor is online: Digital health in the post-COVID era
Uploaded: 2021-03-09
Duration: 12 min 13 s
Description: Healthcare experts from India and China reflect on going digital during the pandemic.

The doctor is online: Digital health in the post-COVID era

Healthcare experts from India and China reflect on going digital during the pandemic.

I want to ask both of you, if I can, about the regulatory framework for all of this. Because obviously, health care is a sector where that framework is absolutely crucial in determining the model and how health gets distributed. I know that in in both countries there was a lot of initial confusion when the digital platforms were introduced about what was legally permissible and what was not, for example, in India. Whether it was legal for a doctor in one state to be able to be administering via the Internet medical services to a patient, uh, in a in another state. And, uh, you know, in China's case, there was an ambiguity about whether, um, online services could be covered by insurance and how to get reimbursed by that, um, and my understanding is that both governments have really tried to step up and be more supportive of of telemedicine since the pandemic. But I'd love to hear from both of you about how what's happening from the regulatory standpoint in your respective country. Completely agree with you. But the ambiguity is still there in terms of the pharmacy. Uh, what can be dispensed. So I think that while telemedicine got sorted out really fast. And I think that the conversations of the future really has to be around the ethical around, humanity around access that equal access because it's not just because you have a smartphone that you can live longer or, you know, get access to better care has to be, you know, for everyone. So I think that those are the conversations that governments are having that how can all boats rise? And the last one that I would leave you with and which we have not touched on but which would be the next big debate is really about science and and how things like CRISPR and all these the film makes and all these genomics and and how you can cure before birth and all these things that can happen and how How do you provide equitable access and make it really human again? Yeah, So the amazing driving the regulatory landscape here in China is healthy China 2030 strategy. So that's a big, overarching strategy for, uh, for health care in China. Right? So it has specific targets to hit by 2030 um, around infectious diseases around, you know, product diseases, etcetera. But and and in that right, uh, the government is promoting the use of technology, the use of the Internet, uh, as a medium. And, um, so that's quite clear. And, uh, what you mentioned is rightly that there was some confusion around whether the social health insurance will be able to pay for, uh, telemedicine services and so on. And I think last year during covid also right, Um uh, the the department that's in charge of social health insurance open the gate on that and said it's okay. And now it's mainly confined to, you know, uh, patients with chronic conditions doing follow up all right, because that's a so not for the first diagnosis of the disease. But for once you have this disease, you're just going back to the follow ups and getting your prescriptions refilled. Um, that that's okay. That's allowed. Now, Also last year, the government, the the FDA equivalent in China, has started issuing approvals for a few AI technology. So I think lung nodule detection and, uh, read no retinopathy, uh, detection with imaging. Ai, uh, some of these companies they got the approvals. Uh, so that means they can be. They can actually provide these services to help screen or diagnose the patient, right? So I think that's also a positive movement. I think the regulations around, you know, data privacy and stuff like that is also getting a lot of attention. And I think that's yeah, they're they're they're putting in more regulations on, you know, who can see how these can be used, etcetera. So, yeah. So? So, overall, I think the ecosystem, um, brick by brick is getting built. Uh, and, um uh, yeah, yeah. So we're quite helpful and positive. So interesting. Just shift gears for a second. If I could and and talk about kind of the ailment that everyone's talking about spill right now. Which is, of course, uh, carbon 19. I wonder if each of you can maybe share a little bit what your platforms are doing. You know what type of services you're providing that are related to, uh, to the virus and how to treat it? How can a digital platform health to combat the pandemic? So, um well, one. Like I said, the scan. Uh, we were the first thing, and, you know, people just didn't know anything about it. So one is disseminating information was the big one, Uh, then the ability to actually, you know, do a quick diagnosis of, you know, for people, and and, uh then it became smarter. We introduced a cough into it and what's what the prediction is So it wasn't as perfect as, you know, getting a pcr rt PCR test, but it definitely was a great first step. The second thing that we did was was this whole program across the country that we could take hotel rooms and work with people to make sure, in terms of scheduling, that we could, you know, distancing and what they needed to do to be able to even, you know, remote care. So why we turned hotel rooms into hospital rooms at a point. So I can say that a lot of this really created that there was no scarcity in India, uh, finding logistics. It really helped us in terms of logistics to make sure that the ventilators were in the right place, the hotspots. We could move that the PPS and things like that. So we actually use this platform, you know, to see where the patients were and then be able to move resources now. What's happening in terms of the vaccine is that we're using it big time to start scheduling because there's more and more sites are opening up. Uh, we've reached out to all our patients and we have 40 million patients. From that, we were able to pick up the cohort that that the government is allowing us to vaccinate, send, send their messages and saying Come now safely, This is available for you. Here's your city. Here's your center and bringing this throughput, which is why we've been doing We're probably, uh, three or four times more efficient than people who don't have a similar platform. You know, we're starting to get some questions come in from the chat function from our online audience. Some of them are quite good. One here relates, exactly. At this point, it's, uh, in China and India. The vaccine is the rollout digital. And how are your company involved in these efforts to distribute directing? I think I explained our so So we are the largest. You know, we actually offered to the government that we could do a million a day, and, uh so it took them to look like. But But the thing is that the government, you know, said, uh, this is not, you know, we really want these guidelines that it can only be hospitals today. They opened it up to clinics, so so people don't have the number of sites and the government has its own app, the going up and they because because very clearly the government had two main issues. They wanted equitable access. They didn't want anybody, you know, in price gouging. So today, the administration of the vaccine is like one is a dollar 20 cents. That's all we can charge. And the government charges another dollar dollar 50 for the for the actual $2 for the vaccine. So it's that cheap. They just want to push this across the country. We all think it's a great thing. So So I do think that India is really on top of it. Fortunately, where we are the vaccine capital of the world, we're turning out. You know, we we have several facilities that can turn out a billion vaccines a year. Jeff, how does it look at a good doctor? Yeah, So in China, um, vaccine uses still mainly limited to high risk personnel. So hospital staff, uh, teachers, people who work at schools, etcetera is quite targeted and that I think distribution is tightly controlled by the Department of Health and their, uh, primary, mainly the primary care facilities. So we haven't Piano doctor really hasn't be able to. And plus, the vaccine is not widely available to everybody. So, uh, so we're waiting on that once it becomes more widely available. Uh, we might, um, connect with providers and such to to provide digital, maybe scheduling appointments, services in such. Yeah, um, there's another really great question that came in, which was the ones that I was going to post. How much do you think the switch to digital health will last past covid 19. Have you seen any evidence among your customers that they prefer online platforms to infer some consultations and that this is a ship that will be with us for years to come? I come from a hospital background. We're seeing that a lot of our patients are coming back to the hospital. They used it as an enabler, and I think, as Jeff had earlier mentioned, the people that you know have made the first visit. They're believers to say that. Why do I need to come back the second time? To see the doctor is so much easier on the phone or to do this disease management. So I think that there are areas, uh, that we can't just painted with a broad brush, that people prefer this so that, uh, it will be more nuanced. And I think that there's more than as we get better into it and wider we would be able to actually, uh, define it the way that Jeff can. So I'm lobbying this over to him. Yeah. So I think in China. Right? So the World Health Organization, uh, just had a team who visited one recently. And what they said was, um, China is getting ready for the cold post covid era since we've been without a new confirmed case for for quite some time now. And, um, but, you know, the you know, I agree with, uh, the point that, you know, now that people have tried this and regulations have opened up, So, for example, you can get reversed, uh, for telemedicine services. I think a lot of people like it for the convenience and the efficiency. Uh, etcetera. So So So, you know, it's not going to be, uh, like before, you know, covid where things just people just suddenly started going offline again. And actually, 74% of, uh, of the Internet users in China have tried at least one type of telemedicine services, and 67% who were surveyed, uh, mid last year say that they are likely. So this is already sort of passed the peak of the covid period, right? Said they that they are likely to increase their use of telemedicine services. Um, so I think that that's a sign that people you know were forced to do this now, but now they tried it. They like it. And, um, they're inclined to, uh, to to use more of it.