DOC2US was created in 2015 to digitally connect patients with doctors in real time. According to Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Raymond Choy, his vision was built on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform by his Co-Founder Tan Aik Keong, CEO at Agmo Studio and Director (Technology) at DOC2US. The decision to use Azure proved fortuitous; in 2020, DOC2Us successfully scaled up its operations amid the COVID-19 health crisis. The company handled a surge in medical queries and expanded its network of pharmacies for e-prescriptions to become the largest e-prescription telemedicine provider in Malaysia today.
As a medical practitioner based in Singapore’s Changi Airport, Dr. Raymond Choy spotted an uncaptured market in the medical industry. He noticed that doctors were constantly fielding queries not only from patients, but also friends and family. This created a backlog that they could only attend to when consultation hours were over. To address this gap, Dr. Choy set up HeyDoc in 2015 with a group of doctor friends. The group later decided to move one step further and create a telemedicine app that not only answers queries, but also provides e-consultations and e-prescriptions.
Building the foundations
To bring this vision to life, Dr. Choy enlisted the help of Agmo Studio, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network. Tan Aik Keong, CEO at Agmo Studio, set up a robust cloud infrastructure built on Microsoft Azure. “Agmo helped us build the whole infrastructure ecosystem,” says Dr. Choy. “As a medical practitioner, I had no idea what this hosting or servers meant. I learned a lot from Aik Keong and his team.”
One of the things Dr. Choy learned is how technology enables everyone to do their best work. “What Microsoft Azure offers is really the efficiency and productivity for our internal teams—be it our tech team, administrative managerial teams, as well as the doctors and healthcare providers,” he says. “With Microsoft, we are able to work anywhere, at any time. Our doctors can be logging in and seeing patients at any point of time, at the comfort and safety of their homes.”
Stepping up for Malaysians
Adoption of DOC2US was slow and steady in the early years; telemedicine in Asia is a fairly new phenomenon, compared to mature markets like the United States and Europe. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 health crisis that the public took telemedicine seriously.
As the Malaysian government issued Movement Control Orders (MCOs), patients stayed home instead of visiting their doctors. They began to use DOC2US for their regular prescriptions and check-ins with family practitioners. DOC2US also helped ease the strain on public hospitals and clinics, which were handling COVID-19 cases on top of urgent medical appointments.
As the number of COVID-19 cases began to climb, Dr. Choy gathered volunteer healthcare providers and medical personnel to address concerns about the virus through the DOC2US app. He also offered free virtual health advisory for COVID-19 patients, under the watch of an infectious disease specialist. With more than 100 volunteers joining DOC2US in the first month, the Malaysian Ministry of Health took notice. This kick-started a partnership with MySejahtera, Malaysia’s contact tracing app. The app incorporated the DOC2US virtual health advisory, communication channels, and network of doctors to assist in Malaysia’s fight against COVID-19.
Continuing to scale up
As monthly user numbers surged from 10,000 to 180,000, DOC2US was able to scale its infrastructure successfully through Azure. Demand for prescriptions has also grown by 160 percent, with one prescription being filled out every minute. DOC2US now has more than 500 pharmacy outlets in its network of partner pharmacies, with a target to double the number by the end of 2021.
“The reason we are able to scale so fast is because of Microsoft,” says Dr. Choy. “The technology enabled us to onboard two pharmacy outlets every day. Our sales team doesn’t even have to go to pharmacies one by one. They do their selling, training, and onboarding through Microsoft Teams.”
Looking forward, Dr. Choy plans to use Azure Cognitive Services to incorporate AI into the DOC2US telemedicine solutions, especially natural language processing and computer vision.
Original article source: https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/1383680899347942137-doc2us-azure-en-malaysia?fbclid=IwAR1_ChBqxUmfTtt_nT1megUgjf1jkpGdTooc8OFor1lRU2VszriNlCLCV6M
