VietNamNet Bridge - The 4.0 revolution is expected to make a breakthrough in the healthcare sector, with a boom of startups in 2018 which use high technologies to improve medical service quality.

Microsoft has teamed up with CLAS Healthcare, a Vietnamese partner, to provide smart medical services such as Basic24x7. This is an app developed on Microsoft Bot Framework which allows medical workers to give advice to patients online. 

The system also applies Big Data that helps medical specialists give quick and accurate diagnoses.

After successful tests in Hue City, Basic24x7 was applied widely throughout the country. 

Some big names have invested in the model, including mClinica (Singapore), which owns SwipeRx platform with 60,000 members in Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. HelloBacsi.com and CancerCare.vn are also well-known shared platforms. 

In the beauty care market, Epomi emerged recently with the idea of providing consultancy and high-quality beauty care products to women.

Hoan My Group, which is considered the biggest privately run medical service system, has VieVie Healthcare, an online consultancy app of its own, aiming for a complete business chain from online to offline services.

Will Greene from TigerMine, a medical consultancy firm, said healthcare systems can operate online but like retail and education, the most promising model should combine online and offline services.

Listed among the countries with the fastest growing pharmacy industry, the total spending on drugs in Vietnam witnessed a 12 percent growth rate in 2011-2016, while the spending on drugs per capita increased by 1.7 times from $27.1 in 2011 to $45.8 in 2016.

The figure, according to ACB Securities, is just equal to half of the average spending level in “pharmerging” markets. 

Therefore, it can see great opportunity for growth in upcoming years, when demand for healthcare increases along with a rise in population and pollution.

The other driving force of healthcare market development would be from the 4.0 industry revolution. 

The experts attending WEF (World Economic Forum) all agreed that the sector will benefit as it can take full advantage of the latest technologies to be brought by the revolution.

Cancer, for example, would be discovered sooner thanks to body health monitoring devices, while computers will help discover lesions which cannot be discovered with the naked eye. 

Meanwhile, surgeries could be conducted in an easier way thanks to the assistance of robots. There will be more apps helping users communicate directly with physicians and physiotherapists.

Despite problems in the labor force quality and infrastructure, Greene still believes Vietnam, with half of the population using the internet, is a market with great potential. 

Kim Mai