Ms Angel Crone, founder of CurAlly, talks about the startup’s services,
which promote patient activation, engagement, and empowerment.

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.

Mr Jay Fajardo notes that Medifi has seen a drastic jump in the doctors
using the platform from 45 in March 2020 to around 3,300 at present.

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)