Dr. Hoh Hon Bing is the Chief Medical Officer of Teleme, a telemedicine platform which offers patients online access to doctors, pharmacists and health labs. He’s the founder of the healthcare app and an ophthalmologist by profession.
The Teleme Backstory Two reasons drove Dr. Hoh to create the app. First, is his passion to educate his patients about their condition and to make them and their loved ones knowledgeable on the matter. This is to ensure adequate monitoring and care could go towards the patient’s recovery. Often, these patients did not know what to convey to their loved ones who were worried for them. Through his healthcare app, the problem of patients retaining only a quarter of the information that their doctors had conveyed to them was resolved.
Second, Dr. Hoh is a stickler for efficiency! In the 1990’s Dr. Hon decided to disseminate relevant health information to his patients himself to minimize the influence of advertisers. His method of educating patients through printed handouts which required frequent updating frustrated him. He pondered about better ways of educating his patients and their family members.
With the introduction of the iphone to the consumer market in 2007, which was literally a computer in the palm of our hand, some hope seemed in sight. Coupled with the speed of the internet which began to improve exponentially circa 2014, a solution presented itself for Dr. Hoh in terms of educating his patients. Bear in mind that the internet had not only become faster in speed but had evolved from becoming an object of curiosity to an object that has underpinned our lives. By all accounts, the internet has become a general purpose technology (GPT).
With his two-pronged goals of i) educating his patients and their kin effortlessly and efficiently and to ii) to steer them away from website information overload about their conditions which tends to scare his patients, Dr. Hoh founded Teleme in 2016. The platform is basically a combination of WhatsApp, Zoom, Facebook and Instagram and is a convenient avenue for patients and doctors to connect. Additionally, it also presents a means of income for the doctors on this platform. And so, with one fell swoop, a doctor who embraces this app, now has a virtual clinic!
The Adoption of Technology in Private Medical Practice As the app is in the public domain, all doctors and patients have access to it. Dr Hoh has observed that younger doctors have taken to this platform like a duck takes to water but it has proved challenging to convince older doctors to embrace this technology.
Unlike younger doctors, the adoption of this technology among older doctors in private practice has been slow. Older doctors tend to dislike chatting online with their patients and prefer that patients return to the clinic for additional information. Older doctors often remark, “I don’t know who I’m talking to”, “I wouldn’t know if the patient is really a patient” or “I haven’t seen the patient, how would I know what the diagnosis is?” in reference to using such apps.
This is a far cry from younger doctors, many of whom grew up with technology and have their own Facebook or Instagram accounts. “The more patients I have, the better the medical practice I have” or, “I want to have lots of likes” seem to be the motivation that drives these doctors to embrace the technology. They are often pumped up to engage with their patients.
Younger doctors have been known to upload events of their appearance at media organizations such as Astro Awani or BFM radio on the platform. They’ve even uploaded before and after photos of surgeries they’ve performed. Teleme allows doctors to be followed and the young doctors are lapping up the opportunity to increase their clientele.
The Combined Power of the Internet and the Pandemic Indeed even before the pandemic, the internet of things (IoT) had facilitated the growth of many products and services such as e-hailing services, digital newspapers, virtual resumes with an embedded video of the candidate, hotel rooms and Airbnb bookings and so much more through apps.
But the pandemic and the internet combined have paved the way for more innovative and convenient ways to do life. The way we buy and sell food items and other products and services has changed dramatically. The delivery of education has moved to online instruction and even tuition and music classes have become virtual. Indeed, life as we know it has been greatly altered. These are just a few examples of how technology and the pandemic have changed how we live our lives.
“This is true to the extent that the lady selling nasi lemak, and the man selling char kuey teow have resorted to online sales, with some being listed on Grab, sometimes without even so much as owning a food stall! “This is because all that’s needed is their location and they will be found!” says Dr. Hoh with a grin.”
Their reasons for an online presence is two fold: i) to gain visibility and ii) the realization that they must engage with their customers and potential customers online for their businesses to survive even as the pandemic continues its reign, adds Dr. Hoh.
There’s more from Dr. Hoh Hon Bing on Thursday. Stay tuned.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the doctors Disruptive Doctors has interviewed and are based entirely upon the information provided to us by them. Disruptive Doctors is not responsible for any inaccuracy of the information conveyed to us.
