MANILA, Philippines — Virtual medical consultations continued to skyrocket in the first half as the pandemic remained a deterrent to people from visiting hospitals and clinics.
Globe Telecom Inc. said medical consultations done through the KonsultaMD app soared by 256 percent year-on-year in the first semester.
The significant growth commenced last year for KonsultaMD as it saw consultations soar by 461 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.
“The pandemic propelled the growth of online health services and changed the way Filipinos interact with medical experts. People are afraid to leave their homes, hospitals are overcrowded, so the adoption of telemedicine has absolutely exploded. We set new all-time record highs every month,” KonsultaMD chief executive officer Cholo Tagaysay said.
Tagaysay said teleconsultation spikes whenever there is a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, such as last March and April when infections reached as high as 11,000 in a day.
However, Tagaysay said that even when COVID-19 cases subsided, teleconsults continued to grow.
“What happens is people try KonsultaMD for the first time to check if they have COVID because they wanted to talk to a doctor immediately. But once they realize how easy, how convenient, how fast, and how affordable the service is, they start consulting for cases that normally won’t probably rise to the level of a hospital visit, such as a headache and stomachache,” he said.
Tagaysay said KonsultaMD remains optimistic that the practice of consulting with a doctor via voice or video would continue even after the global health crisis.
He said teleconsultation has also encouraged the practice of raising medical concerns while they are still at an early stage instead of waiting until the condition becomes worse.
The healthtech service provider was created by Globe six years ago to give every Filipino affordable and convenient access to medical services anytime they want.
It is a portfolio company under 917Ventures, the country’s largest corporate venture builder wholly owned by Globe.
Globe said the number of KonsultaMD users has breached one million as of the first half.
Members can consult with doctors specializing in different fields – from general medicine, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, rehabilitation medicine, mental health support (counseling and psychotherapy), psychiatry, dermatology, ophthalmology, dentistry, ENT and surgery.
KonsultaMD likewise provides digital management of health consultation records and issuance of medical documents such as e-prescriptions, e-laboratory requests, e-referrals, and e-medical certificates.