KUALA LUMPUR: Health communications app Circles.MD plans to launch a doctor-patient communication portal in mid-2020 as it aims to raise US$1.2 million (RM5 million) by end of March.
MedPlanner Sdn Bhd founder and CEO Dr Ezam Mat Ali said consumers are driving the way they want their health to be managed, in line with the consumer-to-business trend.
“We already have the prototype and business model (for the portal), which will involve a device for the patient. We have a way to get this communication done that will satisfy doctors and patients and help patients improve and manage their healthcare,” the paediatrician-turned-entrepreneur told SunBiz.
Currently Circles.MD offers a secure and protected smart health communications solution, used mainly by clinicians to deliver better services to their patients. The app aims to solve three issues in healthcare, which are security, efficiency and improving healthcare for patients.
Ezam said Circles.MD disrupts healthcare communication and the way people work. Traditionally, medical records are generated by doctors and nurses who will enter information into a computer.
“We’re using communication or chat engines to syphon and enter data. With Circles.MD, we can capture as much information as possible from the chats and productivity tools.”
Over one million patient-related messages are processed each day over non-compliant chat apps in Malaysia’s public hospitals.
Ezam noted that WhatsApp does not pass the General Data Protection Regulation and Personal Data Protection Act 2010 for healthcare.
Describing Circles.MD as “WhatsApp on steroids”, Ezam said the app’s productivity tools makes it easy for clinicians in their everyday patient management and allows for the effective and safe transfer of information between healthcare practitioners for specialist advice, referrals and handovers.
“It’s done in such a way that doctors don’t have to repeat information because the information is in one place. When doctors and the healthcare ecosystem generates information for the patient, it creates a patient record on our app,” he explained.
With this, patients can produce their health record when they visit hospitals, solving one of the biggest problems in the country, that is, an absence of a centralised system for patient information in healthcare.
Through collaboration with other clinicians, patients will also obtain better and more prompt diagnoses and even quicker treatment.
Ezam also pointed out there are many inefficiencies in healthcare processes, which the app also aims to resolve.
For example, many patients can be discharged from the hospital, but still need to wait for medical approval, which can lead to an incurrence of higher costs due to a longer hospital stay.
Patients are also at risk of getting hospital-acquired infections the longer they stay.
“If communication is bad, patients are not discharged with proper plans and they get readmitted to the hospital again. In public hospitals, they block the beds for new patients due to late discharges.
“The best way to become efficient is to use technology in communication. At least 30% of malpractice (by doctors) is due to poor communication. Poor communication result in treatment delay,” said Ezam.
Since its launch on June 17, 2019, the app has raised RM1 million via equity crowdfunding platform AtaPlus. It has just begun monetisation based on a freemium model.
The app has 200 users from 22 hospitals, mainly public hospitals in the Klang Valley. It is targeting 2,300 users, its breakeven point, by August this year for Malaysia.
“The way it benefits public and private hospitals are different. In public hospitals, it’s more productivity-focused, eyeing for efficiency, discharging patients and managing patients quicker. In private hospitals, it’s how to get GPs to refer patients, using a quick and easy way to refer and document the patient’s case. Our focus at the moment is public hospitals,” Ezam said.
He added that Circles.MD is best for departments such as oncology, neurology, cardiology and paediatrics, particularly in complex medical cases such as diabetes and cancer.
Ezam said it plans to reach out to other hospitals in the Klang Valley, Perak, Penang and Negri Sembilan. It also wants to expand to Singapore in as well as to the UK, where he was based for 27 years.
