The regional health tech company, Good Doctor Technology, has announced their commitment to strengthening its regional headquarters based in Singapore in response to growing industry demands for long-term health management solutions accelerated by the rapid adoption of digital health solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. By instilling a centre of excellence, innovation and knowledge hub approach out of Singapore, GDT aims to cultivate best industry practices and bring tried-and-tested approaches from their parent companies and implement them in all SEA countries they serve. To achieve this, GDT will double down on its R&D capabilities by increasing its headcount resources by 50% over the next 3 years and attract passionate talents with cross-industry experiences beyond the healthcare and technology sectors. By growing its regional resources, GDT aims to re-imagine the future of healthcare in SEA by championing digital-first approaches to address underlying accessibility gaps in primary healthcare services which exist across the region.
Apart from increasing resources, GDT also seeks to foster deeper relationships with Singapore’s leading research and education institutions to shift perceptions about the impact of digital healthcare services in managing accessibility gaps in primary healthcare across SEA. With these objectives in place, the regional hub looks forward to increasing its thought leadership in digital health interventions while remaining as its strategic business head operations which focuses on driving continued corporate successes in Indonesia and Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries in the near future.
With a mission to provide “one doctor for every family in Southeast Asia”, GDT recognises the urgency to democratise the access of doctors by unlocking the advances of digital health technologies which puts users back in the driver seat in managing their health in the long term. To champion, these perspectives, GDT’s regional HQ will be spearheading various digital health research initiatives which will underpin their in-app product enhancement initiatives. By taking a data-driven approach to building upgraded features and solutions, GDT aims to encourage users to stay proactive about their overall health management and ultimately hopes to shift mindsets and behaviours to encourage more to prioritise health and wellness ambitions. In order to integrate digital health tools into people’s daily lives, GDT hopes to build the next generation of healthy nations across SEA. Being strategically situated in Singapore, with strong government advocacies around incorporating smart healthcare management capabilities to strengthen the overall health of the population, GDT also wishes to tap on the nation’s well-established position within the MedTech industry to gain a vantage point of the future of healthcare innovation across the SEA region.
Melvin Vu, Regional CEO of Good Doctor Technology, said, “As we continue to invest and grow our business, we recognise the value of pioneering the development of innovative yet thoughtfully designed in-app features, built to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the people we serve. By taking a data-driven approach to our insights gathering processes, we look forward to developing more user-backed health solutions that cater to their specific health needs. Underpinning our growth plans, the RHQ will continue to be a strategic innovation and knowledge hub where new digital health features and test-bed initiatives will be spearheaded and deployed in the countries we serve.”
Building a re-imagined digital health ecosystem for Southeast Asia
To continue shaping the future of telehealth in SEA, Good Doctor recognises the importance of collaborating with industry leaders to leverage their existing knowledge about the barriers and pain points to accessing healthcare within their populations. Through ongoing collaboration opportunities and strengthening of strategic partnerships, Good Doctor combines their technological capabilities with their partner’s access to population groups to deliver deeply integrated and well-conceptualised products that create high-value services for their end-users. By building products that address market feedback, Good Doctor applies its regional expertise in digital health to continuously drive forward-looking initiatives that foster the next level of digitalisation in various industries across SEA. By tapping on their fast-growing wealth of cross-country expertise in the region, Good Doctor continuously applies their learnings and experiences with the ultimate goal of revolutionizing healthcare delivery.
Unlocking new opportunities for telemedicine and digital health in the new normal
The COVID-19 situation highlighted the dual importance of optimising limited medical resources and also ensuring that patients had easy access to healthcare. At the peak of COVID-19 infection rates in Indonesia and Thailand, GDT successfully partnered with local governments and healthcare authorities to deliver telemedicine services and increased access to critical healthcare services for those in home isolation. During this period, GDT saw six times growth of active users with a 700% increase of COVID-19 related consults between 2020 and 2021 in Indonesia and served the largest number of COVID-19 patients in one of the key business districts in the heart of Bangkok’s city centre.
Good Doctor also aims to integrate telemedicine and digital health services into people’s daily lives especially in areas of wellness and chronic disease management. SEA sees the most prevalent rates of chronic diseases due to sedentary lifestyles, which outstrips other geographies. In Indonesia, GDT spearheaded a pilot study with diabetic patients which unveiled the improvement of long term patient compliance with the use of telemedicine services. This telemedicine-led research was a first of its kind and was endorsed by the Indonesian Medical Association.
“Through our ongoing experiences of working with various industry leaders across the healthcare ecosystem from government policymakers to healthcare payers and providers, we can continue unlocking new untapped opportunities for digital health technologies and demonstrate the benefits it can bring to a re-imagined healthcare ecosystem powered by smart health management tools and backed by data-rich insights. By prioritising R&D, we hope to continue bringing new solutions to the industry that addresses the emerging healthcare needs of the region as more look to digital health services to support them in achieving their health and wellness ambitions ”, added Melvin Vu, Regional CEO of Good Doctor Technology.
