Halodoc and Good Doctor Prepare to Face ‘New Normal’ after Pandemic

Two healthcare technology startups, Halodoc, and Good Doctor experienced a rapid increase in the number of uses during the corona pandemic. Both of these healthtechs will also develop services, especially to deal with the new normal times that are being prepared by the government.

Halodoc Chief of Medical Irwan Heriyanto said the company had seen an increase in public interest in consulting health issues online since the beginning of the year, even before the corona pandemic. “With a pandemic, usage is increasing, this is a booster,” he said in a video conference on Tuesday (5/19).

A week after the government determined that two Depok residents were affected by the coronavirus, Halodoc experienced a twofold increase in transactions. Before the vaccine is found, the coronavirus in the case will remain. That way, people are expected to start getting used to and side by side with corona.

“When conditions have not yet been reached, the community side by side with corona, telemedicine technology facilities are needed to communicate between patients and doctors,” he said.

He is also optimistic that during the new normal period, the company’s services will continue to grow. “Businesses will make improvements, and provide solutions,” Irwan said.

Likewise, Head of Medical Good Doctor Adhiatma Gunawan said the company would patch various service deficiencies when it was just normal. “We will also always develop features. Love impacts on health,” he said.

Telemedicine Became a Service that is Widely Used by the People during the Pandemic

Good Doctor transactions also surged during the pandemic, even reaching 10 times. Many users want to find information about the spread of COVID-19 on its platform.

Telemedicine is indeed considered to be able to prevent transmission of the coronavirus from patients to medical personnel and vice versa because consultation or diagnosis is carried out without physical interaction.

Platform services are no longer just a consultation and diagnosis of a patient’s disease. The platform also provides a coronavirus risk check service to users.

The Ministry of Health had previously collaborated with Halodoc and Good Doctor as part of the ecosystem of telemedicine development in Indonesia to handle the pandemic.

Halodoc and Good Doctor Make Protocol to Prevent Misdiagnosis

Since the corona pandemic, the use of online health services or telemedicine has spiked. The health technology startup (healthtech) Halodoc and Good Doctor try to run the protocol properly, to prevent diagnostic errors on the platform.

Head of Medical Good Doctor Adhiatma Gunawan said from the internal side of the company, it had a medical committee to maintain the quality of consultations and diagnostics on the platform. They ask for ‘feedback’ from users to assess services through user satisfaction surveys.

The assessment is to measure the benefits of online health services at Good Doctor. “We always look positively and always improve services,” Adhiatma said in the SDG Virtual Talks Ramadan Edition “Online Treatment: A New Way during Pandemic”, Tuesday (5/19).

The result, so far no diagnostic errors were found in Good Doctor users. “All fulfill the best rules,” he said. Halodoc Chief of Medical Irwan Heriyanto said his company also has a protocol in providing services. Platform users not only complain of minor illnesses but severe diseases such as cancer.

Halodoc Provides a Referral for Sufferers of Serious Illness

For patients with minor illness complaints, Halodoc can handle consultation and provide diagnoses. However, patients who have a severe illness, Halodoc will refer him to an offline health facility.

“Usually we just give a view of how the disease, for example, cancer, we recommend to the offline health facility so that they can do the control,” Irwan said. Users of this online healthcare service have increased since the co-19 pandemic.

Platform services are no longer just a consultation and diagnosis of a patient’s disease. The platform also provides coronavirus risk check services for application users.