A quarter spent in 2021, while the hit of Covid-19 pandemic and the start of lockdown didn’t seem to have happened that long ago, the world’s medical industry – particularly in Asia, has evolved massively. One year ago, a lot of countries in the West started their lockdown measures. While we are now placing our bet on the effectiveness of the vaccines, let’s take the opportunity to review how the health & medical industry, and the usual practice of visiting the doctor has changed on the other side of the world in Asia.

Adoption of telemedicine

Covid-19 has surely accelerated the adoption of telemedicine – where the medical consultation would be done remotely and online, without the need for the doctor and medical provider to meet the patients face-to-face physically. In fact, in 2020, the world’s percentage of physicians using telehealth to see patients spiked from 22% in 2019, to 80% in just a year, due to lockdown.

China was the first country reported with Covid-19 cases, and the impact of telemedicine was significant. Taking Ping An Good Doctor, a Chinese healthcare services platform, as an example – the research done by Bain & Company found that the number of online consultations rose 800% in Jan 2020, compared to Dec 2019 when there wasn’t news on the outbreak of Covid-19 yet. The same observations went to another two China-based online medical platforms, Chunyu Doctor and Ding Xiang Yuan, with a rise in the number of online consultations of 100% and 135% respectively in the mentioned period.

The situation was similar in Singapore, where MyDoc, a telemedical platform headquartered in the country recorded an increase of 147% in their daily active users in March 2020, compared to a yearly average in 2019.

With all the above figures, it wouldn’t be a surprise to know that consumers are expecting to make greater use of digital health services in the next 5 years. In particular, the same research suggested if medical spending is covered by their insurance provider or employer, 91% of Asian consumers are willing to use digital health services. This new way of medical consultations under the Covid-19 era has changed our habits of seeking help from medical professionals and created new opportunities for the industry.

Impact on multi-national companies operating in China

With the travel ban in place, not only does it make us stay at home longer than anticipated, it also affects how companies operate and collaborate.

 
In China, a full-fledged localise medical technology (MedTech) supply chain is one of the Chinese government’s priorities. To reduce the concern around the dependency on the global supply chain for medical products, Chine would put more effort in localising the production – including research & development at the early stage, manufacturing of medical machinery and extend the collaboration with local partners.

 
Given the huge population in China, the local market is large enough to support a localised supply chain. Base on a McKinsey research, over 90% of the multi-national MedTech companies expect greater localisation in the industry after the outbreak of Covid-19, and 60% of them think localised research & development and the collaboration with local partners could provide more opportunities and new ways to serve the needs of the local market.

 
Worth noting that, while companies are considering expanding their footprint in China, they are also concerned about legal and financial aspects such as IP protection and cost.

Changes to national healthcare operations across Asia

As a whole, not only the medical professionals adopted a new operation model over the past year, the local government also responded to leverage technology and innovations in lifting the operation of their national healthcare system.

In Japan, the government launched a free government-backed remote health consultation service in response to the growing concern from the public on their health as Covid-19 was spreading rapidly. Through mobile or other smart devices, patients could consult with medical professionals via text in chat format and could attach images to show visible symptoms.

On the other hand, in Indonesia, the country’s Ministry of Health partnered with a delivery company Gojek and telemedicine provider Halodoc for quick Covid-19 diagnostics in remote areas. The service would categorise patients into different risk categories, and only those that are of higher risk would be led to in-person assessment at the hospitals. By introducing this service, the workload for the medical professionals and pressure on the national healthcare system are eased.

For the Chinese government, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a report about promoting consumption in the near future. It mentioned that online medical treatment will be the main way for chronic disease. The government’s support and the pandemic situation provides a huge opportunity for MedTech companies and telemedicine.

Marketers & businesses to leverage the fast-growing opportunities in the industry

For businesses who are thinking of expanding into the Asia market, particularly into the health-related sector, the latest scene in the industry and the blooming prospect of technological advancement has created the best timing for expansion. 

If your business targets medical professional and industry experts, career-oriented platforms such as LinkedIn and Maimai (LinkedIn-akin in China) would be a good place to start. The platforms allow you to share personalised messages and paid content targeting professionals within the industry.

Being one of the few Western social networks in China, LinkedIn has more than 45 million users from this Asian country. Noteworthy that currently the platform has paused its new member sign-ups for the services in China, whilst it works on ensuring the operation complies with local law.

 
Another suggestion would be industry-related website and healthcare media, as the audience who visit these sites usually show interested in the topic already or has a certain level of understanding of the industry. Qiuyi and Xinzhiliao in China, or Healthcare IT News in other APAC areas are some examples to consider marketing. 

 
One thing to note when tapping into the China market, that you’ll need an ICP license for developing a campaign in China. It is also important to safeguard data privacy and a secured data sharing system.

For one-stop marketers like us at Comms8, we could help businesses with the licensing; and instead of looking for targets in a massive audience pool, focusing on these industry-related sites could bring the client’s brand to the right audience group and increase the chance of generating opportunities for businesses.