The Philippine Embassy in Berlin (Berlin PE) hosted on 8 October the third session of its UPLIFT series (Unpacking the Pandemic’s Lessons through Interviews with Filipino Thought-leaders/Talents) on the topic “An App a Day: The future of digital health in the Philippines.”
The session featured Mr Jay Fajardo, a Manila-based serial tech entrepreneur who founded Medifi (www.medifi.com), Ms Angel Crone, a Munich-based social innovator who founded CurAlly (www.curally.ph), and Mr Miguel Encarnacion, managing partner of Unifier Ventures (www.unifier.vc), a Berlin-based, Filipino-funded venture fund whose investments include those in Philippine-based digital health startups Aide and Medcheck.
The conversation delved into how COVID-19, while posing tremendous challenges to the Philippine healthcare system, presented an opportunity for digital health startups to help address these problems through such solutions as tele-consultations, including through asynchronous chat-based format, issuance of e-prescriptions and e-medical certificates, home-based health services like vaccination and diagnostic tests, and the provision of easily accessible information on hospitals and COVID-19 testing locations.
It was also noted that the digital healthcare field offers the potential for Filipinos overseas to benefit from the “high-touch” services of doctors in the Philippines, especially where linguistic barriers, as well as cultural idiosyncrasies, makes it difficult for them to optimally access medical advice abroad.
A video recording of the session may be viewed on the Embassy’s Facebook page, at https://www.facebook.com/PHinGermany/videos/3459657990766691. (END)