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Primary Care

 

China 2030 programme opening the door to foreign operators

The revitalisation of the Chinese healthcare market is creating significant opportunities for foreign operators, as the government looks outside its borders for help with an already overburdened system and aging population. We talk to the CEO of a European company at the forefront of tendering for bids to find out more.

FREE BLOG HBI Awards 2018: Aligning many operations under a single brand

Many health care service groups have a multiplicity of different brands. MediGroup, a Serbian health care group with 2017 revenues of €30m chose to align all its operations under one brand and created a new communication platform around the question “How are you today?” The result was a 3% increase in brand awareness in one year alongside a 10% increase in calls and 18% increase in visits.

FREE BLOG HBI Awards 2018: Building a personal health plan service platform for over 600,000 patients

Oma Terveys is a personal health plan service platform that can be used to monitor and review your care history, personal health plan, lab results and wellness goals. It introduced an 24/7 online GP chat function in 2016 using both text and video calling with the ability to attach photographs. It employs 200 GPs to monitor the chat service and claims to be able to reply in seconds. The platform also allows physicians to chat with each other to share information. The app has more than 658,000 registered users and Terveystalo, the biggest, for-profit medical provider in Finland claims that 13% of its physical visits (5.25m in 2017) end up registering.

FREE BLOG HBI Awards 2018: A patient platform app with 40,000 regular users

Medicover Poland created a mobile application at the end of 2016 that allows patients to manage their health from anywhere in the world. The platform allows patients to make appointments, access test results, message the doctor and nursing staff, order prescriptions and access Medicover’s telemedicine platform for remote consultations. Over 130,000 have used the service, with 40,000 going on to become regular users.

FREE BLOG HBI Awards 2018: Primary health platform for Indian consumers to overcome the lack of trust in the health system

In conjunction with the Indian Health Organisation, an Indian health care benefits company, insurer Aetna launched vHealth in November 2017, a primary health platform for Indian consumers to help engage with the medical profession and overcome a lack of trust in the health system. In an attempt to reduce physical consultations, patients can get unlimited teleconsultations, receive follow-ups, guidance and ongoing support. It has an outpatient network in 38 cities across India. Since it began, 800,000 people have signed up to the service and 16,000 teleconsultations have taken place. Aetna says the app has driven a 60% increase in contract sales in 2017 and an increase in coverage of 78%. The app has led to a 70% reduction in the need for physical consultations, reducing costs for the patient.

FREE BLOG HBI Awards 2018: Urine tests at home using smartphones

Healthy.io takes smartphone cameras into clinical quality medical scanners, using colour recognition and AI data sets to create a product for existing healthcare systems. Its first test kit is Dip.io, which digitizes urinalysis, the second most common diagnostic test, particularly useful in prenatal health and chronic kidney disease. The solution increases access to testing and, by eliminating the need to travel to a lab, can be used in any setting at a low cost. Images are sent directly to the doctor, reducing wait time. The judges gave the award to healthy.io on the potential for this single test which is being rolled out in the NHS in England and elsewhere.

Abraaj sold out of court protection to Colony Capital

Abraaj Holdings and its fund management arm Abraaj Investment Management (AIM) have been sold out of provisional liquidation to Colony Capital, which changed its name from Colony Northstar in June 2018. The deal does not include the troubled Abraaj Global Health Fund, which has been hived off to Alix Partners. Colony is a listed US REIT with global ambitions.

Payor-operator agreement heralds quiet revolution in Czech Republic

A quiet healthcare revolution is taking place in the Czech Republic. For the first time in almost two decades, providers and payors have reached an agreement on fees without the need for intervention by the Ministry of Health. Healthcare Europa speaks to an operator who says this is great news for private providers and a large step towards the creation of a more open market.

Pihlajalinna and Helsinki-based insurer plan nationwide cooperation

Finnish outsourcing specialist Pihlajalinna and Helsinki-based insurer Fennia have announced long-term plans to jointly provide “comprehensive health and well-being services”. Healthcare Europa speaks to Pihlajalinna and a local operator to find out more.

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