ONE of the biggest changes that the pandemic brought about was in health care. Previously, online doctor consultations were for those who lived far away from hospitals or clinics, or those who were bed-ridden. When the pandemic started, people became afraid of going out but they still needed to consult with doctors.
My family and I were among those people. A side note is that one of the best things to have happened to us in the last two years was that we didn’t get the common cold or flu, but we did get skin problems and allergic rhinitis. My mom has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, so she has to consult with her pulmonologist regularly. The only thing we didn’t do an online consult for was her glaucoma as the doctor needed some tests to see the progress of the disease.
When my daughter got Covid in August, she was prescribed medication via her company HMO’s telemedicine service.
What people realized over the past two years is that telemedicine does work. For serious illnesses, we would need a face-to-face consult, but telemedicine is practical because it saves time and effort.
Telemedicine definitely minimized the risk of Covid-19 transmission because it prevented direct physical contact, provided continuous care to the community, and reduced morbidity and mortality. Telemedicine is now an important tool in medical services even as health experts are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s (MPIC) mWell is one of the telemedicine services that thrived in the pandemic. The app, which claims to be the Philippines’s first fully integrated health app with a robust telemedicine service, recently introduced mWellMD, an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and clinic management system “designed by doctors, for doctors.”
This system allows medical practitioners at mWell to have insights on their practices even when they’re mobile.
With mWellMD, doctors can access their practice data and patient data with just a click of a button. These include clinic schedules, review patient notes, plan for in-patient visits, and professional fees monitoring. These can also include patient referrals to other doctors and communication with their staff.
“I really like the platform because it is well-structured from scheduling, input of data, to sending of prescription to patients. As a dermatologist, my field is visual so online consultation for people with specific skin, hair, or nail concerns is really helpful,” said Dr. Jarische Lao-Ang, a dermatologist for seven years. Jarische, by the way, is someone I follow on Instagram. I love her informative content.
“With the Consult Now feature, I’m made available to my patients 24/7. It is easy to be on boarded—you can set your own schedule and state your own professional fee and get it 100 percent, with no commission from mWell. And now they have an EMR which is most useful to our practice,” said Dr. Rose Angela Mahipus, a primary care physician for five years.
“With mWell, I get to help a lot more patients who are not able to consult personally through the clinic or hospital, including patients who are bedridden. The opportunity to help and reach more patients from a wider area of practice up to Visayas and Mindanao is an advantage,” said Dr. Reymark Calma, general medicine, Occupational Medicine, primary care physician for 13 years.
mWellMD provides advanced analytics and dashboards to monitor patient medical records and history, provide convenient patient online consultation via the mWell app, give efficient appointment booking systems for online and office clinics, customized forms and templates plus quick text documentation, and make opportunities for collaborations with other doctors to send and receive patient referrals.
“The doctor experience is a key aspect of mWell’s operations—we make sure to listen to them and respond to their needs to deliver a seamless end-to-end journey,” said MPIC chief finance, risk and sustainability officer Chaye Cabal-Revilla.
Doctors interested in becoming mWell partners may sign up in as fast as 30 minutes via www.mwell.com.ph. There are no joining fees and only a PRC ID is required. They may charge their own professional fee without any commission from mWell. The app is also offering partner doctors an exclusive high-speed Internet plan from PLDT Home Fibr (1,000 mbps for P1,499). Partner-doctors may avail of the ExpertMD subscription plan to access a wider range of features. For only P1,599 a month, doctors may use customized forms and templates as well as advanced analytics and dashboards.
Telemedicine continues to bridge the gap between people, physicians and health systems, and it will continue to be an option for people seeking medical care. There is nothing like a face-to-face consultation, sure, but the accessibility and cost-effectivity of telemedicine will ensure that it’s here to stay. n