The outbreak led to the government deciding to isolate the whole society. People limited going out of their homes as much as possible. But the need for health care still needed to be met.
So are people moving towards online health check-up services? Will online health check-ups become widespread after COVID-19? What opportunities do mobile health apps have to grow?
During the 2 months since the outbreak in early March, YouNet Media’s social listening tool SocialHeat has collected data across social networks and concluded the following 4 decisive factors:
1. COVID-19 has driven the need for telemedicine
Due to the limitation of social contact, especially after the nationwide social isolation telegram came into effect, people seem to have no other choice but to have remote medical examinations. After the meeting on COVID-19 prevention and control on April 3, Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam also stated that the health system needs to encourage online medical examinations: “The Ministry is building and perfecting an online medical consultation system for Vietnamese embassies abroad; a unified online medical consultation and examination system nationwide” .
However, since COVID-19 is the reason why people pay attention to online examination, it is understandable that users’ demand gradually decreases with the “heat” of the epidemic. The evidence is that the trend of users discussing remote examination services has gradually decreased in the second half of the epidemic. The decreasing trend of discussion does not simply mean that users are no longer interested, but that they may have found a solution for themselves or that they are having difficulty changing to new habits.
Existing healthcare apps like Med247 and eDoctor certainly understand that changing user behavior takes a long time to convince. The COVID-19 pandemic was an unforeseen event, but the important takeaway is that people’s need for online healthcare systems is always present.
People want to get health check-ups and consultations more conveniently than having to travel miles away, or wait impatiently at hospitals; worrying about the situation of always having too many hospital beds. Social isolation is really an opportunity for users to express that desire more clearly than ever through the collected data. However, to change the habit of “having a check-up must be done directly” requires more time and effort from solutions applying digital technology in the medical industry.
2. Users give positive feedback about Online Healthcare
SocialHeat deeply analyzes and collects statistics on social network users’ reactions to remote medical examination and treatment services.
Of the total 15,027 discussions about online examination solutions:
Young people are really interested in the benefits that online healthcare services bring. Of which, the majority of 51.2% are mostly “mothers with babies” who are interested in and have direct needs for healthcare services for their children and family.
3. Users need to feel secure
Top 5 biggest sources of discussion on social media about telehealth:
Through the data collected, Ho Chi Minh City Dermatology Hospital not only received the most discussions but also received the most positive support with 1,078 discussions. The reason can be explained that most dermatological diseases can be clearly recognized through images or videos, so users trust online dermatology examination services more than any other specialty.
During the period of social isolation, the majority of people tend to seek out mobile medical examination services of large hospitals. Thereby, the need of users for online examination is completely potential and they are ready to accept the change with one prerequisite: peace of mind.
Therefore, it is understandable that people tend to choose hospital services instead of healthcare applications such as eDoctor or Bacsi24 , although the conveniences of technology applications cannot be denied.
Additionally, based on social media discussions since March 1, 2020, SocialHeat analyzed:
Through discussions on telemedicine, both hospitals, doctors and most users choose to contact directly via phone numbers, text messages, calls via Zalo and Facebook Inbox. Most families have one or a few doctors that they always go to. Therefore, in the COVID-19 epidemic situation, they prioritize direct contact with family doctors instead of using mobile applications. According to the data, only 32.8% or less are currently using the application.
The data shows that the potential for healthcare applications to grow is huge. The group of users in the 67.2% who are already ready to choose online medical examinations. They are just having a little difficulty changing their habits and are not convinced that using technology applications can still make calls, send messages and include many other utilities such as managing records, tracking prescriptions or choosing a doctor.
That’s just the group of users who share discussions on social networks. If according to the General Statistics Office, 28.5% (2019 census results) of the population is between the ages of 24-34 , that means the potential user base for mobile healthcare applications is up to more than 27.36 million people.
Within that 32.8% group , SocialHeat counted the names of some of the most discussed applications:
eDoctor : Taking advantage of the news that eDoctor received investment from 4 large funds on March 31, eDoctor received a lot of attention from the community. After that, eDoctor quickly announced that its 24/7 chat consulting service was free to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, eDoctor is very active on Facebook with an average posting frequency of 3 posts/day. Thanks to that, eDoctor is currently occupying the top position in the minds of consumers when it comes to healthcare applications.
The limitation of eDoctor is that it has not really received trust from users when some people still complain about not receiving feedback and are not satisfied with the quality of home examination.
Med247 : Newly launched in July 2019, the Med247 application aims to connect clinics on a technology platform so that users can easily use and take care of their health more conveniently. The application is receiving positive support from users, especially pediatricians. Med247 is well known in mother and baby groups on Facebook such as “Confessions of mothers raising children” or “Association of pregnant and raising children”.
Despite receiving a good amount of positive organic support, Med247 has not really promoted media channels such as newspapers to be known more by the community.
Jio Health : Focusing on home doctor visits, Jio Health is gradually becoming known, especially when the COVID-19 epidemic is restricting people from leaving their homes. However, Jio Health’s service is not clearly communicated to users. Despite having 49,248 likes and 61,319 followers, not many users know about the free 24/7 consultation service that Jio Health is offering.
iCNM : As a remote healthcare application, iCNM not only helps users schedule appointments, search for clinics and doctors, but also manage patient health records. One downside is that the options from iCNM are still limited to the Medlatec hospital chain.
BacSi24 : VOV’s application aims to help users proactively search for doctors by department, hospital and location. The limitation of BacSi24 is that its utility is limited to searching for doctors and making appointments.
4. Opportunities for technology applications
Through the analysis data from SocialHeat on social network users’ discussions in the past 76 days, the development potential of healthcare technology applications is really huge. With all the conveniences it brings to users as well as doctors, technology applications can really change the medical industry like the way Uber or Grab changed the transportation industry.
For a long time, people’s habit has always been “hospital-centric”. All health care issues can only be addressed by doctors at the hospital. Even though it is far away, patients still have to spend all their time and effort to visit reputable hospitals for peace of mind. But now, thanks to technology, health care applications can be “user-centric”. Patients can receive health care advice from doctors right at home, can choose doctors according to their needs, and can make appointments in the most convenient way.
That contributes a lot to the common good. In developed countries such as Germany, Canada, Singapore, remote health examination solutions have been applied for nearly 40 years to reduce the burden on hospitals, help patients visit more conveniently, doctors manage medical records more scientifically, contributing to the development of the medical industry as it is today.
YouNet Media believes that if the following points are reinforced, it will really help healthcare applications to be positively received and spread further:
- While all businesses are cutting back on marketing, this is an opportunity for technology applications to boost marketing as the community is focusing on the main issue of personal and family health.
- Sharing information helps users understand that the utility of the application is much more valuable than traditional health care and examination for certain specialties such as dermatology.
- Partnering with major hospitals will be an effective way for applications to build credibility in the eyes of users, as well as help users change their health care habits more easily.
- A significant number of users are still hesitant about the accuracy of online diagnosis and screening. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a communication strategy so that users know and understand the benefits that technology brings instead of the habit of having to go to the doctor directly or make a phone call.
- Be more active in sharing health care knowledge from experts on social networks, paying special attention to mother and baby groups.
- The UI/UX design of the application is easy to operate and use, avoiding the possibility of new users abandoning the application due to difficulty in operation.
- The trend of digitalizing the healthcare industry is not just a temporary need during the COVID-19 season but an inevitable change. The need to simplify medical examinations will increase after the pandemic. Therefore, applications should consider expanding and perfecting their utilities, not only stopping at making appointments, finding doctors, finding hospitals but also managing personal medical records, prescriptions, dosage reminders, improving the quality of diagnosis and online screening.
There is no denying the crisis that COVID-19 is causing to the economy and most industries. But on the positive side, the epidemic has really tested the strength of the country’s healthcare sector and the team of doctors who are doing their job excellently. Through that difficulty, there is an opportunity for the healthcare sector to gain more momentum to transform into technological innovation in public healthcare. Following the trend of change, technology applications can focus on their strengths of flexibility, convenience, and technology to lead the change towards a more modern and convenient healthcare future for everyone.
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