Telemedicine provider KonsultaMD expects to follow the footsteps of its unicorn sister company, Mynt, in the coming years.
KonsultaMD is a portfolio company of 917Ventures, an affiliate of Globe Telecom Inc.
Less than two years into the pandemic, medical consultations through the KonsultaMD app already skyrocketed to 1,549 percent.
Add to that, the service has reached over one million members who enjoy 24/7 unlimited access to licensed doctors via voice or video call for P60 a month.
Given the rising demand for remote medical access because of convenience, affordability and safety, 917Ventures is confident KonsultaMD will go the way of Mynt, the Globe affiliate announced in its November 10, 2021 virtual briefing.
“We’ve had high hopes for KonsultaMD even before the pandemic," says Vince Yamat, 917Ventures Managing Director.
"We saw it as a way to address the pain points in Philippine healthcare, which was suffering from a lack of healthcare professionals, health infrastructure, limited accessibility and high cost of medical consultation,” he elaborated.
“People were wary of using the service before as they are used to traditional face-to-face consultations, but with the pandemic, things have changed. Telehealth has become an important innovation that will stay and evolve,” according to Yamat.
“Our situation has taken away the reluctance of many Filipinos to try telehealth services," confirmed Cholo Tagaysay, CEO of KonsultaMD.
"People are looking for ways to stay safe from the virus while our hospitals are overwhelmed with patients.
KonsultaMD has become a platform that connects Filipinos to much-needed medical consults for non-emergency cases,” he pointed out.
Even after the pandemic, the public’s behavior of consulting with a doctor via voice or video will remain if the current trend is an indication, Tagaysay maintained.
In fact, even when COVID-19 cases subsided early this year, teleconsults continued to grow as people realized the advantages of using the service and going digital, he revealed.
Aside from being affordable, safe, and convenient, teleconsultation encourages the practice of raising medical concerns while they are still at an early stage instead of waiting until the condition worsens.
KonsultaMD 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.
Furthermore, KonsultaMD 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.
917Ventures, as Globe’s corporate venture builder, plays a significant role in the company’s journey to becoming a digital solutions group.
Aside from GCash and KonsultaMD, other portfolio companies under 917Ventures are online grocery shopping platform Purego, loyalty and e-commerce solution RUSH, end-to-end digital advertising agency AdSpark, primary care aggregator HealthNow, multi-channel communication services m360, and self-service AI-powered merchant dashboard Inquiro.
917Ventures also has investments in online learning platform Edventure, fan marketplace Fanlife, online IT bootcamp KodeGo, and online seller platform BentaTV.