These former aCommerce execs are building an ‘Amazon’ for healthcare in Southeast Asia

Born in China, Sheji Ho grew up in the Netherlands and worked in the US, China, and Southeast Asia. During his years of stay in these countries/regions, he, as a patient, experienced first-hand their different healthcare systems and models.

“In the Netherlands, I would go to the same family doctor for many years. On the other hand in Beijing, I had to wake up at 5 am to queue up at a hospital and wait half a day to get my health checkup done. While Singapore offered a similar experience to the Netherlands, Bangkok was almost like China,” Ho tells e27.

“These personal experiences, combined with the founding team’s professional experience at aCommerce trying to enable e-commerce for brands in Southeast Asia, led our team to build HD,” he says.

Headquartered in Bangkok, HD operates online healthcare and surgery marketplaces called HDmall in Thailand and Indonesia. The platform connects patients to hospitals, clinics, operating rooms, and surgeons while offering healthcare financing solutions to increase access to affordable care and surgeries. 

The healthtech startup claims it powers over 1,500 healthcare providers, including some of the biggest hospitals in these two countries. Over 250,000 patients have benefited from more accessible and affordable healthcare and surgeries through its platform.

The firm also runs HDcare, a service that enables healthcare providers — many already on the HDmall platform — to increase the utilisation of hospitals’ and clinics’ operating room capacities. HD took inspiration from JD Health in China and Pristyn Care in India to build a hybrid platform. In other words, HD is Booking.com for healthcare on the demand side and Airbnb for Surgeons on the supply side.

“We are the ‘Airbnb for surgeries’ that addresses the low utilisation rates across private hospital infrastructure,” he says.

COVID-19 a blessing in disguise

HD was co-founded in 2019 by Ho, Aditya Jamaludin, Raya Chantaramungkorn (all former top executives at Thailand’s leading e-commerce enabler aCommerce), and Frankie Shum (formerly with Ardent Capital).

Also Read: HD, the Airbnb for surgeries in SEA, secures US$6M funding

The healthtech venture was launched a year before COVID-19 struck. During the first few months into the pandemic, there was pressure on the founders to pivot and double down on telehealth (or food delivery) because, back then, people thought HD would be locked down for years.

“However, the team spent the first few months of the lockdown trying to sign up more healthcare providers while ignoring demand, betting on a recovery to normality sooner rather than later. “Fortunately, thanks to the long stretches of normal life in Thailand and Indonesia (the two markets it started with) allowed us to continue growing our business without many interruptions,” Ho reflects.

As the pandemic peaked, hospitals in Thailand (a popular medical tourism hub) saw their medical tourism demand evaporate overnight. This drove them to look for domestic patient acquisition, which led them to HD, allowing it to grow its supply rapidly.

“During the lockdown stretches, we focused on signing up for COVID-19 testing and vaccine supply, which led us to become the largest online testing and vaccine platform in Thailand,” he explains. “Looking back, we feel the pandemic was a blessing in disguise as we ultimately ended up benefiting from the global crisis.”

The pandemic also exposed pure-play telehealth as an unsustainable business model for emerging markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

“During the lockdowns and work-from-home periods, we noticed an increase in elective surgeries, which could be explained by people taking the liberty to rest and recover at home. This led to what is today HDcare, our private-label elective surgery product that leverages excess room space in hospitals,” he continues.

A diverse healthcare system

According to Ho, the healthcare system in SEA is as diverse as the region itself. For historical reasons, Singapore and, to a lesser extent, Malaysia followed a ‘western’ healthcare system. For example, residents of these countries go to family doctors for primary care instead of straight to hospitals and enjoy a mix of insurance and employer coverage versus out-of-pocket pay.

On the other hand, emerging markets, such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, have very different healthcare ecosystems and value-chain. The private health insurance penetration is low in these countries, and the workplace wellness movement is nascent and, therefore, has less employer coverage. On average, 40 per cent of people pay in cash for healthcare services.

Besides, the populations are relatively younger (therefore, fewer chronic diseases) in these three countries, and people mainly go straight to hospitals due to the absence of the private family physician practice concept.

Additionally, local regulations allow community pharmacies to dispense most medications without a doctor’s prescription (thus cancelling out one of the key reasons why people use telehealth in Western markets – to get a quick prescription and then fulfil it at your local Walgreens). ‘Dual practice’ is common with physicians and surgeons operating across multiple healthcare providers.

“These unique traits make it more difficult for something like telehealth to continue its rapid growth post-COVID-19 in its original form. More hospitals are adopting telehealth technologies directly but more to support existing patients (hence CRM) instead of using telemedicine as a patient acquisition channel. In response, many telehealth startups are trying to vertically integrate downstream, often into their own (built or bought) clinics,” Ho explains.

As for competition, Ho says he believes there’s room for multiple healthcare business models as the region is so diverse. Moreover, healthcare is complex and has a lot of unaddressed challenges that require more startups to work on it. “That said, we are tackling unique local challenges in emerging SEA markets like Thailand and Indonesia with a unique business model. Also, our team is distinct in that we’re the only founding team with e-commerce experience building a healthcare and surgery marketplace in SEA.”

An Amazon for healthcare

For emerging SEA markets, which are similar to a hybrid between mainland China (ex., Hong Kong and Macau) and India, the post-COVID-19 opportunity primarily lies in building a consumer healthcare marketplace.

“If you want to buy just about anything, there’s a good chance you head to Amazon to search for the product, consider options from around the globe by comparing prices and trusted reviews, and then complete the purchase. This magical experience does not exist in healthcare,” he explains.

For instance, a person who needs to find a doctor or book a medical procedure has many subpar options, ranging from Google searching “allergist near me” to facing their insurance company’s overwhelming provider directory. However, they don’t provide insights into the cost or quality. The experience of finding the cheapest option for your medication or the best health insurance is the same.

Also Read: ‘Current macroeconomic headwinds weigh heavily on healthcare sector’: Doctor Anywhere CEO

“That is why we need an Amazon of healthcare — the universal go-to place for people to shop for healthcare services, insurance, and drugs with trusted reviews, quality metrics, and price transparency,” he says. “We at HD consider ourselves fortunate to be in a position to build a healthcare and surgery marketplace to address unique healthcare accessibility and affordability challenges for emerging SEA.”

On Wednesday, HD announced US$6 million in financing from Partech Partners, M Venture Partners, AC Ventures, iSeed, and Orvel Ventures. The company will use the money to expand its team and develop its technology to serve over 5,000 healthcare providers and 300 operating rooms and facilitate thousands of surgeries by 2024.

“Given the current macroeconomic situation, we strongly believe in a move towards ‘back to fundamentals’. In healthcare, this means getting back to offering affordable and accessible care and focusing on the ‘nuts and bolts’,” he says.

“For HD, this means getting more healthcare providers on our platform, expanding our catalogue of outpatient and inpatient procedures, and accelerating the growth of HDcare, our private-label elective surgery product. Our ultimate objective is to build an Amazon for healthcare products in SEA,” he concludes.

—

The post These former aCommerce execs are building an ‘Amazon’ for healthcare in Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.