Singapore-headquartered telehealth startup Doctor Anywhere today announced that it will be launching the COVID-19 Medical Advisory Clinic. Major insurers, including Cigna Singapore and AIG, are partnering with Doctor Anywhere to offer the COVID-19 Medical Advisory Clinic as a free service to their policyholders.

For individuals in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the COVID-19 Medical Advisory Clinic is a full suite service. For instance in Singapore, users can use the Doctor Anywhere mobile app to access COVID-19 Medical Advisory Clinic video consultation and speak to a doctor within five minutes. During the video consultation, the doctor will ask for travel history, signs of chest infection, or whether there is any contact with confirmed cases, as well as other questions to triage and determine possible infection.

If the doctor suspects an infection, the Doctor Anywhere Care Team will assist to coordinate next steps, including calling an ambulance to transport the user from home to Singapore’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) in the next hour for a COVID-19 swab test. If the doctor assesses that it is not a suspected COVID-19 case, medication can be prescribed to ease symptoms, which will be delivered to the user’s home within three hours. 

In Thailand and Vietnam, the local Doctor Anywhere teams will provide assistance to connect the patient to the appropriate healthcare authorities to receive further medical attention.

Users in other countries can also access the Doctor Anywhere COVID-19 Medical Advisory Clinic, but the service will only include video consultation with a doctor to identify symptoms and provide advice on next steps or a memo to obtain medication from a local pharmacy.

For users in Thailand and Vietnam, they will be charged according to their respective local consultation rates as the users will be routed to their local doctors in these two countries. For users in all other countries, they will be routed to the Singapore doctors and the consultation fee will be charged at SGD $10. This does not include medication that might be prescribed by the doctor.

The Doctor Anywhere app is available for download on iOS and Android platforms.

THE LARGER TREND

At the end of March, Doctor Anywhere secured a $27 million Series B financing round led by Square Peg, the largest venture capital fund in Australia; Singapore government investment arm EDBI; and IHH Healthcare, MobiHealthNews reported. The funds will be used by the startup for its extensive expansion to augment the region’s healthcare landscape through digital transformation, with the support of strong local and regional partners.

In Thailand, a Virtual COVID-19 Clinic special teleconsultation service was recently launched through a partnership between AIA Thailand, True Digital Group and Samitivej. The service, which is provided by Samitivej, is available free of charge and all day from 8 April to 10 May 2020.

ON THE RECORD

“The fact that physical healthcare facilities could be sources of contagion means many are now focusing their attention on new models of care that avoid physical contact between clinician and patient. For clinicians who are self-isolating or under quarantine, video consultation allows them to continue treating patients. In such crucial times, we know that every doctor available to help the situation counts. Beyond COVID-19-specific consultation, we also need these doctors to continue providing primary care – through telehealth – for ailments like eye infections, skin conditions, urinary tract infections and chronic diseases, etc.,” said Dr Kevin Kok, a practising doctor and chief operating officer of Doctor Anywhere.

“For individuals who are unwell but unsure if they may be infected, Doctor Anywhere’s COVID-19 Medical Advisory Clinic is crucial for providing them with professional medical assessment – and escalation if needed, without exposing themselves or others to further risk of infection,” added Dr Kok.