The healthcare industry in Southeast Asia (SEA) is sitting on the cusp of change. Healthcare providers in the region are already noticing favourable regulations being put in place to cater to patients’ rising demand for greater convenience and reduced costs. Following suit, the region expects to see investments in digital healthcare pour in to accommodate the shifts in expectations for patient care. And communication APIs can be key to making the transformation accessible to all.
What’s causing the shift in the Southeast Asia’s healthcare industry
These factors are a warning sign for an industry that has been slow to adopt digital tools that would help providers deliver a more patient-centric model of care.
Ageing population
By 2025, close to half a billion people, or nearly 10% of Asia’s population, will be aged 65 or older. From there, ageing woes are projected to grow exponentially. As the demographic ages, the number of healthcare workers will no doubt decline as the demand for care increases. Whether or not healthcare systems can withstand the strain will be contingent on their ability to not just adopt the right technologies, but use them to their intended effect.
Resource shortfall
WHO’s report highlighted that Southeast Asian countries have less than 0.6 doctors per 1,000 people, representing one of the lowest doctor-to-patient ratios in the world. It’s critical that healthcare service providers find innovative ways to maximise their existing resources to effectively maintain their daily operations—and they need to think of solutions quickly. Only then can healthcare systems get the breathing room they need to comfortably scale up.
Changing consumer preferences
Customers today have grown accustomed to hyper-personalised services made possible through digitalisation. This paradigm shift in lifestyle habits has influenced customer expectations for the healthcare experience. The good news is that decreased waiting times, remote consultations, and real-time updates on medical status, among other things, are now possible with available technology. The only thing left for healthcare providers is to take the step and change. It’ll be a win-win-win, for patients, hospitals, and public health.
Moving forward, healthcare providers will have to focus on delivering healthcare in a way that meets these expectations—all while operating under increasingly stringent conditions.
Embracing digital health tools to deliver healthcare anytime, anywhere
With challenge comes opportunity. Nowhere is this more evident than in the willingness of investors to pour money into regional healthcare. Within the Asia-Pacific region, more than US$2.27 trillion is expected to circulate within the industry by 2026.
There’s a reason why investors are so optimistic. Consumers within Southeast Asia are not averse to embracing digital products and services. A study by Bain & Company revealed that both consumers and physicians in Asia-Pacific expressed a strong preference for tele-health services. This shows that, barring life-threatening conditions, patients are looking towards taking a self-service approach to healthcare by using digital channels. Their main motivations lie in convenience and cost savings; tele-health services and e-pharmacies enable patients in rural or inaccessible locations to receive medical attention that would otherwise be out of reach for them.
How communication APIs can lower the barrier for digital healthcare transformation
Increasing the number of touchpoints where patients can receive medical attention is vital to ensuring that they get treatment in a timely fashion. Here’s how cloud-based communication APIs can allow hospitals to process patients in greater numbers and make healthcare more accessible to Southeast Asians no matter where they are—all while ensuring that healthcare standards are maintained.
Keep patients on the road to recovery with SMS reminders
SMS APIs lets administrators programmatically sync up messages with calendars, so that patients can be reminded of important appointment dates. Messages can also be scheduled to ensure that patients are alerted whenever they need to take their medication or change their wound dressing. The content of each message can also be personalised to include details, such as the patient’s name and the list of medications they should take, to eliminate confusion.
Considering that more than nine out of 10 SMS messages are opened within three minutes of being received, SMS is one of the most consistent ways to keep patients on schedule to recovery.
The icing on the cake is that SMS can double as a reliable and effective channel for post-care engagement. For instance, you can conduct research on how patients respond to certain types of medication or surveys on patient satisfaction levels using two-way SMS, forms, and QR codes.
Voice messaging for inclusion
An estimated 13.9% of Southeast Asia’s population suffers from poor eyesight. This means that no matter how technologically advanced telehealth gets, a significant portion of the population will not be able to access these digital platforms independently. Beyond the visually impaired, the neuroatypical and illiterate can also stand to benefit from technology like text-to-speech, which is often enabled by voice APIs.
Text-to-speech voice messages ensure better tech inclusion by allowing vulnerable communities to receive the same medical advice and appointment reminders in a form that they can easily process and understand. Voice message also helps to increase the security of remote transactions by eliminating data trails that OTPs leave behind.
Speak to anyone in Southeast Asia like a native with chat apps
When you’re dealing with a region that is as linguistically and culturally diverse as Southeast Asia (there’s an estimated 1,200 languages spread across 11 countries), you’ll want to make sure that your communication channels are varied enough to include as many people as possible. In fact, consumers have clear preferences when it comes to their go-to messaging app. 8×8’s Chat Apps API grants you access to six of the region’s most popular chat apps, including Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, WeChat, Viber, Zalo, and KakaoTalk, allowing hospitals to communicate directly with patients on channels where they are most comfortable.
Incorporating these various apps onto a platform like 8×8 Converse lets you manage them all from one place. With a backend customer profile building system that lets you keep track of each individual’s likes, dislikes, allergies, medication schedules, previous visits, and more, hospitals will be able to provide much more personalised treatment that will hopefully minimise patient processing and recovery time.
Give SEA’s patients and hospitals the upgrade they deserve
People need healthcare that is available and accessible as their needs evolve, so that they can not only thrive, but live with a peace of mind day-to-day knowing that they’ll be in good hands if and when they fall sick. Find out more about how 8×8 Communication APIs can help eliminate congestion from your communication workflow, or watch a demo to witness what the future of healthcare can be.
