Placing Hope on the Digitalization of Health Clinics

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the dynamics of the medical industry, and the healthcare landscape has also changed because of it. The pandemic has undoubtedly created new challenges, but it has also accelerated healthcare innovation. Healthcare providers must find ways to do more with fewer resources.

Because when looking to the future, it is important to understand how health services can continue to develop with the support of technology. From a patient's first visit, through diagnosis, to returning home, connected technology can help healthcare providers improve productivity and the level of service provided to patients.

According to data from Statista Market Insights, last updated in April 2023, estimates the digital health market over the past decade in Southeast Asia. In 2017, the industry's total revenue reached $1,24 billion. Then in 2023 it jumps to $6,66 billion, showing substantial growth.

However, the growth is not uniform in all segments. Digital Fitness & Well-Being for example, it grew from $0,72 billion in 2017 to $3,35 billion in 2023. Meanwhile, the eHealth segment increased from $0,52 billion to $3,32 billion in the same period.

Indonesia will lead the region in terms of digital health market revenue. The figure increased from $439,60 million to about $2,3 billion this year.

For the record, Statista defines digital health as consisting of two segments: Digital Fitness & Well-Being and eHealth. This first section includes devices and apps specifically designed for fitness and motion tracking, such as fitness apps, nutrition apps, and meditation apps. Second, eHealth is a little more complex, including devices, applications, medicines sold over the internet, and doctor consultations online.

DailySocial.id compiled a special article to see an overview of how digitalization in the eHealth segment has progressed so far in Indonesia. This country is interesting because it consists of thousands of islands, so clinics and the like are the first layer of health services. So that access to health is equitable, not just increasing the number of clinics, other approaches could be the solution.

Menurut BPJS Health, the number of health facilities (faskes) for National Health Insurance (JKN) services in Indonesia reached 27.659 units as of January 31 2023. Puskesmas is the largest type of health facility, namely 10.283 units or reaching 37,17% of the total. Next, there are 7.158 primary clinics, 4.720 individual practice doctors, and 2.601 hospitals.

As is known, health facilities are not only hospitals, but also clinics, health centers, pharmacies, health labs, beauty clinics and other specialist clinics. This health industry ecosystem involves many actors and agencies, namely doctors, nurses, pharmacists, patients, BPJS, Ministry of Health, Kominfo, BSSN (State Cyber ​​and Crypto Agency), clinic business players, pharmaceutical factories, medical equipment distributors, stationery offices), IT vendors, and others.

“Everyone in the health ecosystem has different communities, needs, interests and regulations. "Digitally, they have all created and implemented systems to make their work easier, but unfortunately not many can integrate with each other," explained TrustMedis CEO Achmad Zulkarnain to DailySocial.id.

Co-Founder and CEO DoctorTool Rainaldo said that the development of digitalization in the health industry in Indonesia is currently moving in a promising direction. This can be seen from the government's commitment and initiative in encouraging the acceleration of digital transformation in the world of health.

"There are also many startup companies whose mission is to digitize, both from the side of service providers and service recipients, with the aim of improving the quality and accessibility of health services for the community," he said.

Even so, he continued, there is still a lot of homework that needs to be done to make the digitalization process faster. These include data standardization, interoperability, data security and privacy, as well as community capacity and awareness.

Co-founder and CMO Rata Deviana Maria emphasizes the need to increase digital literacy for health workers themselves. Staff, health workers and patients need to understand the use of health facility applications, whether in clinics, hospitals or independent doctors. The application of digital technology is very helpful in minimizing this occurrence human error, especially in managing patient medical record data so that services can be improved more quickly and efficiently.

"Perhaps, there needs to be knowledge in the form of training or product demos for patients or staff regarding the use of the application. "At Rata, we try to communicate this with the entire team so that all information is conveyed evenly," said Deviana.

Both Rata, DoctorTool, and TrustMedical are several players healthtech who play in the health service area, especially clinics. DoctorTool and TrustMedis are providers for mobile devices to report the to improve the efficiency and service of health facilities by providing various features, such as making it easier to manage patient data, medical records, doctor schedules, drug inventory and financial invoices.

Meanwhile, Rata plays in the dental specialist area by creating an Aligner innovation (teeth straightening technology) originally made in Indonesia. They also started expanding dental clinics in 9 locations in Indonesia.

Challenge omnichannel

Achmad continued, in implementing digitalization, three sides need to be considered. Clinic owners also need to monitor their business regularly real-time and ensure profits. Then, managers, doctors and health workers at clinics need to serve patients more easily, and patients need to be served quickly.

“The digitalization that is built must at least be able to answer the above needs. "If one of them is not fulfilled, it can be considered that digitalization has not been successful," he said.

For him, measuring the success of digitalization can be seen from the service time and number of patients. The faster the service, the more digitalization is successful. The service he means is not only in the examination room, starting with the patient booking queues, queuing at the clinic, doctor's examinations, lab and radiology tests, queuing at the pharmacy, and even paying at the cashier.

“All of these processes must be fast. When service gets better, patient satisfaction also increases.”

Just talking about patient data, continued Rainaldo, if you still rely on paper as a data recording medium it will be very risky because it has many weaknesses, such as being difficult to read, difficult to find, easily lost and taking up storage space.

“It will be difficult for them to find data, summarize it, process it and make the necessary reports. Of course, the weaknesses of conventional systems are very easy to overcome with digitalization. "With digital data, service performance becomes much more efficient," added Rainaldo.

Deviana said that registration was complete online, but the procedure is still more commonly done offline due to limited medical equipment. In Rata, for example, they already have more sophisticated 3D scans and CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography) scans, but they can only be used for patient visits. offline.

"It is true that not all clinics can provide qualified medical equipment, but actually it is important to expedite and speed up the procedure."

According to him, the ideal concept for implementing omnichannel in health clinics must be integrated. At least this vision has been implemented in Rata. They utilize new technology, for example AI, to save more time, increase accuracy and efficiency. The patient acquisition process is also much faster, from getting leads to convert become a patient.

“This is all thanks to registration which is easy and doesn't require much manpower. "

Not to forget, the company also consistently carries out training for all teams in all divisions. Some were even sent to train abroad. Marketing strategies also continue to adapt to current trends. Rata works with hundreds of KOLs and lifestyle brands, and uses social media for education and promotion.

"All online channel and offline We arrange it in such a way that it remains integrated for patient comfort, so that they get a pleasant service and experience in getting access to straighten their teeth."

Since it was founded in 2019, Deviana admits that every year Rata can serve more patients. If the figures are calculated, it is claimed to reach 70 thousand patients, with various dental cases encountered. In total, the clinics are spread across 9 locations and collaborate with 147 partner clinics.

Meanwhile, according to Achmad, according to him, the ideal omnichannel concept is not only integrated between online and offline, also every clinic operation can find out the data. As a result, optimization can be known from upstream to downstream.

"Omnichannel has become a necessity with the issuance of the latest Minister of Health Regulation. Moreover, with very high internet and mobile penetration, patients now have aware and request instantly, from making an appointment, viewing patient information, review doctor, and so on.”

However, in reality health clinics in the regions still have difficulty implementing this concept. Some of the reasons are lack of human resources and availability of internet facilities or for mobile devices to report the support, resulting in less than optimal service, resulting in frequent accumulation of patients.

TrustMedis itself has 28 modules, from services, operations, to back offices for clinics, hospitals, laboratories and beauty clinics. Each unit in the clinic has different needs, different modules, so they must be handled in different ways.

“At TrustMedis we have many (scout) talents with different tasks and functions, several scout we are doctors and health workers, there are also accounting experts."

It is said that the company has helped more than 400 health services. Not only does it help the clinic manage its business, but it also improves the patient experience of the clinic.

Industry prospects

DoctorTool also supports the JKN BPJS Health program which aims to guarantee health for all citizens. Rainaldo said that his party highlighted that digitalization of all data sources integrated in one ecosystem is very important. Therefore, the company designed an electronic medical records and management information system application that is easy to use by all staff and health workers.

“All features were developed for ease of use, but still pay attention to the completeness of the data that must be captured. AI and IoT are applied as much as possible in service efficiency.”

There are two products being introduced: DoctorTool Mobile, an application for patients that is directly integrated with the DoctorTool system in health facilities which enables the ideal omnichannel concept to be implemented; DoctorTool Hub, connects the DoctorTool application with various IoT-based health tools, so that health workers can reduce errors and speed up recording in measuring patient vital signs and anthropometry.

By implementing the DoctorTool solution, it is claimed that the average waiting time will be much faster, around 15 minutes. Searching for medical record data from previously having to search for paper manually, now only takes around 5 seconds.

"Because DoctorTool has been integrated with Satu Sehat and BPJS Health, DoctorTool can increase the value of clinic performance from BPJS Health with an automatic reporting system so that clinics get maximum capitation income."

It is claimed that the company has served more than 650 health facilities in 110 cities throughout Indonesia.

Rainaldo said that the prospects for the health clinic industry are very good in the future, as seen from the increasing needs of the community along with the increase in population. Awareness about health and a healthy lifestyle also influences the need for health services.

Achmad added that distribution of the number of clinics also continues to be needed in rural areas considering the size of Indonesia. The clinic, which continues to grow, will also turn into a hospital. This opportunity is accompanied by challenges from patients who want to be served quickly and easily.

"So the challenges for clinics are also getting bigger, telemedicine and AI must be immediately implemented in serving patients. "We will continue to innovate and implement new technology that can be applied in clinics, hospitals and other health facilities."

Deviana also shared her hopes. He said, “Education on various platforms is also very important for health services online and offline can be integrated more easily. Because abroad, access to dental health is very easy to reach and can be found everywhere. "It is time for Indonesia to implement the same thing, in accordance with Rata's mission which wants to provide more affordable access to dental health for all Indonesian people."