Uber and Airbnb have long been icons of the sharing economy. In other areas of society, entrepreneurs are trying to match demand with untapped assets and services. HD, a Bangkok-based start-up, is applying an economic model to healthcare in Southeast Asia.
HD operates a platform that helps meet three people: surgeons in private practice, patients who want cheaper surgery, and empty hospital operating rooms. While this model may sound a bit counterintuitive to people in the West, Southeast Asian healthcare systems are built on vastly different patient-hospital dynamics.
HD co-founder and CEO Sheji Ho got the idea after seeing a Thai surgeon advertise on Facebook to attract private clients. His Ho, who previously co-founded Southeast Asia e-commerce enabler aCommerce, says dual practice is “very common” for doctors in Southeast Asia.
“They qualify by working in prestigious hospitals, but they also work in private hospitals where they can make money because the pay is low,” he said in an interview.
In Southeast Asia, people go to the hospital as soon as they get sick. Ho believes the problem with public hospitals is that they have very long queues. “Doctors [in the region] It’s like a merchant operating on different platforms,” he says.
According to the World Health Organization, 40% of healthcare costs in Southeast Asia were paid out-of-pocket in 2018, compared to 29.8% in Europe and 32.4% in the Americas. Patients often end up paying high costs because there is no central platform to provide cost transparency.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, swaths of surgeons’ rooms were suddenly freed up as Thailand, a popular destination for medical tourism, lost patients from abroad. Ho said the oversupply was exacerbated by the construction of hospitals in the country before the pandemic, as the government gambled on an aging population and rising land prices.
“Basically, hospitals wanted to use our platform,” says Ho. HD is also attracting customers, so it can negotiate lower rates. Patients undergoing surgeries such as thyroid, hemorrhoids, and orthopedic surgery through HD cost him 15-20% less than the market price.
Why not provide a meeting point that meets all these needs? That’s why HD launched its own branded HDcare surgical services two months ago. Ho said the platform currently supplies him with more than 20 operating rooms in Thailand and Indonesia, with the potential for further access from his 1,500 healthcare providers already on the platform. More than 40 types of surgery are lined up. The plan is to expand the service to 200 procedures per quarter by Q4 2023.
Amazon health service
HD’s surgical platform is a new addition to the established business of the market for outpatient services. The model is similar to that of neighboring China, where Alibaba’s biggest domestic rival JD.com operates a similar e-commerce business, selling third-party health care services such as vaccinations, health checkups, imaging tests and minor surgeries. has proven successful in the large healthcare market.
There is no primary care in Southeast Asia, so finding the right doctor and treatment can require asking friends for recommendations or making multiple hospital visits.
This contrasts with the United States, where as of 2015 75% of adults had a primary care physician treating common conditions and were referred to hospitals only for urgent specialty care.
Like Airbnb, HD began onboarding hospitals and clinics through a lot of the heavy lifting, including helping customers set up product pages. “But it’s also our moat,” he says Ho. “SaaS is still too early for Southeast Asia.”
HD takes a cut from the transaction and charges listing fees from healthcare providers, similar to how traditional e-commerce platforms monetize. It also offers healthcare marketing solutions to providers on its platform, similar to how Amazon Ads and Tmall Ads enable brands to increase reach and performance.
The liability of platform operators is an ongoing debate in the tech industry, and businesses that can affect human health seem to further complicate matters.As a marketplace platform, HD is common Do not handle disputes. In the beauty space, where experiences can be more “subjective,” HD takes a similar approach to Amazon’s, “putting patients first, giving customers money back, and dealing directly with providers.” says the founder.
“Generally, in addition to outpatient surgery, HD prioritizes minimally invasive, short-term elective surgery with low output variability, such as thyroid and hemorrhoid surgery.”
Since its founding four years ago, HD has served approximately 250,000 patients. Sales increased 7x his during the pandemic and he aims to sustain that growth rate by 2-3x in the years post-COVID.
Optimism in a recession
Ho is optimistic about his venture as the pandemic hits the global economy. “Every time a recession started, we saw some companies take off. They were taking advantage of the glut of restaurants. ‘, he suggests.
“So when you go into a recession, there’s plenty of opportunity. Hospitals are sitting in extra rooms. It takes two to three years to grow that part of the business rapidly.”
HD’s fundraising got off to a rough start, despite promising signs of growth. As the pandemic swept across the globe, investors turned to telemedicine startups as their default healthcare solution. Ho disagrees with that presumption.
“Telemedicine is working well in the Western market. [general physician]get a prescription and go to Walgreens to get the antibodies you need a prescription for,” he says.
“But in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, you can get that level of medicine at pharmacies. [over the counter], removing the need for telemedicine. “
Investors are now starting to realize the potential of HD. This allows offline healthcare providers to use digital platforms rather than competing with them. The startup recently completed his $6 million funding round from Partech Partners, M Venture Partners, AC Ventures, iSeed and Orvel Ventures. It’s also part of a recent batch that was accepted into the Google for Startups Accelerator’s Southeast Asia program.
