‘PEOPLESHEALTH’, developed digital healthcare solutions to overcome language and border limitations.
‘PEOPLESHEALTH’, developed digital healthcare solutions to overcome language and border limitations.
Posted January. 23, 2025 10:21,
Updated January. 23, 2025 10:21
PEOPLESHEALTH is a health-care startup with a mission to ‘create a world where no patient is denied treatment due to language and border limitations.’ Eun-sun Kim, the CEO of PEOPLESHEALTH and a professor in the Department of Gastroenterology at Anam Hospital of Korea University, embarked on this technological endeavor to address the inconveniences experienced while treating foreign patients. She aims to provide digital health-care solutions for international medical services, with the goal of eliminating medical blind spots so that there are no patients, domestic or overseas, who cannot receive treatment due to physical limitations.
PEOPLESHEALTH Digital health-care solution / source= PEOPLESHEALTH
PEOPLESHEALTH’s digital health-care solutions consist of 3 components: ▲ ‘Knowing Doctor’ ▲ ‘K-Doc’ ▲ ‘ToggleDoc’.
‘Knowing Doctor’ is a platform that helps patients consult with specialists through simple Q&A about their symptoms without having to visit a hospital. It enables responses to foreign patients in various languages through its multilingual conversion feature.
‘Knowing Doctor’ service / source= PEOPLESHEALTH
The user enters their country and mobile phone number on it, and after answering questions related to their symptoms, it assists in connecting and facilitating a free consultation with a specialist.
‘K-Doc’ is a foreign patient attraction service that conducts direct marketing to help foreign patients receive prompt medical treatment, catering to their need for advanced health-care services.
Process of K-Doc service / source= PEOPLESHEALTH
A coordinator fluent in foreign languages conducts consultations with foreign patients. After that, they assist the foreign patients in applying for visas, booking flights, and making accommodation reservations to visit domestic medical institutions. Even after the treatment, patients receive aftercare services through K-DOC for the issuance of medical documents and follow-up examinations.
The web application, ‘ToggleDoc’ features an intuitive and user-friendly interface that assists health-care institutions in quickly finding essential patient-related information. It also offers a variety of automation features for efficient patient management tasks. Thanks to the automation of repetitive tasks with ToggleDoc, health-care institutions can save time on overtime work.
ToggleDoc service / source= PEOPLESHEALTH
It also provides translation features to assist foreign patients in directly consulting medical professionals in South Korea. For example, when a patient in Mongolia describes their symptoms using it, it helps them communicate with relevant medical institutions through the translation function, facilitating the booking of medical appointments.
ToggleDoc not only arranges for foreign patients living in regions with weak medical infrastructure to receive assistance from Korean medical supports, but it can also help foreign patients from expensive health-care nations like the United States to utilize Korean medical facilities. For Korean medical institutions, there is an advantage in attracting foreign patients relatively easily by leveraging technology, thereby expanding their range of medical services overseas and seeking to increase revenue. Currently, English, Chinese, Mongolian language services are available, with Japanese services also set to be updated.
ToggleDoc’s translation features / source= PEOPLESHEALTH
Digital health-care solutions have
several advantages, but there is a perception that it is so difficult to enter this field. This is due to the burden of time and maintenance costs required for establishing the necessary systems. In fact, many health-care institutions hesitate to adopt these solutions for such reasons.
To address this, PEAPLESHEALTH plans to utilize Software as a Service (SaaS), encouraging each health-care institution to easily install and use ToggleDoc, while also providing continuous feature updates. SaaS refers to application services that operate in a Cloud computing environment, where all services are delivered within the cloud systems. This is why we don't need to install separate software on your PC when sending and receiving emails.
ToggleDoc offered as a SaaS allows hospitals to reduce infrastructure investment costs for building solutions, and it also enables centralized software management and updates, which can improve the issue of insufficient dedicated staff. Moreover, a significant amount of medical data can be securely stored in a cloud-based environment.
And not only can there be smooth communication between medical staff and foreign patients, but also with stakeholders of foreign patients. This is because it is possible to share patient information without a OCS(Order Communication System) or EMR(Electronic Medical Record) system. PEOPLESHEALTH plans to attract not only foreign patients but also overseas medical technology companies, medical information system providers, medical device and software development companies, and medical institution associations through ToggleDoc.
PEOPLESHEALTH aims to target high purchasing power countries such as the United States and Japan, starting with ophthalmology, dentistry, and hair loss, and plans to expand its services to critical care medicine. So, it has established a database of over 7,000 doctors from university hospitals and advanced general hospitals, along with information about the medical fields. This database will be continuously updated. They have set the goal of utilizing electronic questionnaires to attract international patients, enhancing service sophistication, and leveraging the accumulated technology for Korean medical care.
Kim said, “When a foreign patient visited my hospital, I felt uncomfortable seeing them unable to properly explain their symptoms due to different language. There was also the inconvenience of needing to go through an interpreter during a tight consultation schedule. Experiencing these issues, I decided to develop technologies that would alleviate the limitations of language and borders. Subsequently, I obtained patents for an AI questionnaire management system, AI-based electronic chart and standard EMR auto-generation method, and methods and platforms for providing non-face-to-face medical consultation services, leading to the development of our digital health-care solution. And we will enhance accessibility to Korea's excellent medical technology and infrastructure based on our accumulated technological capabilities. Through this, we aim to grow into a medical technology company that assists in the treatment and management of patients worldwide.”
By DongJin Kim (kdj@itdonga.com)
PEOPLESHEALTH’s digital health-care solutions consist of 3 components: ▲ ‘Knowing Doctor’ ▲ ‘K-Doc’ ▲ ‘ToggleDoc’.
‘Knowing Doctor’ is a platform that helps patients consult with specialists through simple Q&A about their symptoms without having to visit a hospital. It enables responses to foreign patients in various languages through its multilingual conversion feature.
The user enters their country and mobile phone number on it, and after answering questions related to their symptoms, it assists in connecting and facilitating a free consultation with a specialist.
‘K-Doc’ is a foreign patient attraction service that conducts direct marketing to help foreign patients receive prompt medical treatment, catering to their need for advanced health-care services.
A coordinator fluent in foreign languages conducts consultations with foreign patients. After that, they assist the foreign patients in applying for visas, booking flights, and making accommodation reservations to visit domestic medical institutions. Even after the treatment, patients receive aftercare services through K-DOC for the issuance of medical documents and follow-up examinations.
The web application, ‘ToggleDoc’ features an intuitive and user-friendly interface that assists health-care institutions in quickly finding essential patient-related information. It also offers a variety of automation features for efficient patient management tasks. Thanks to the automation of repetitive tasks with ToggleDoc, health-care institutions can save time on overtime work.
It also provides translation features to assist foreign patients in directly consulting medical professionals in South Korea. For example, when a patient in Mongolia describes their symptoms using it, it helps them communicate with relevant medical institutions through the translation function, facilitating the booking of medical appointments.
ToggleDoc not only arranges for foreign patients living in regions with weak medical infrastructure to receive assistance from Korean medical supports, but it can also help foreign patients from expensive health-care nations like the United States to utilize Korean medical facilities. For Korean medical institutions, there is an advantage in attracting foreign patients relatively easily by leveraging technology, thereby expanding their range of medical services overseas and seeking to increase revenue. Currently, English, Chinese, Mongolian language services are available, with Japanese services also set to be updated.
Digital health-care solutions have
several advantages, but there is a perception that it is so difficult to enter this field. This is due to the burden of time and maintenance costs required for establishing the necessary systems. In fact, many health-care institutions hesitate to adopt these solutions for such reasons.
To address this, PEAPLESHEALTH plans to utilize Software as a Service (SaaS), encouraging each health-care institution to easily install and use ToggleDoc, while also providing continuous feature updates. SaaS refers to application services that operate in a Cloud computing environment, where all services are delivered within the cloud systems. This is why we don't need to install separate software on your PC when sending and receiving emails.
ToggleDoc offered as a SaaS allows hospitals to reduce infrastructure investment costs for building solutions, and it also enables centralized software management and updates, which can improve the issue of insufficient dedicated staff. Moreover, a significant amount of medical data can be securely stored in a cloud-based environment.
And not only can there be smooth communication between medical staff and foreign patients, but also with stakeholders of foreign patients. This is because it is possible to share patient information without a OCS(Order Communication System) or EMR(Electronic Medical Record) system. PEOPLESHEALTH plans to attract not only foreign patients but also overseas medical technology companies, medical information system providers, medical device and software development companies, and medical institution associations through ToggleDoc.
PEOPLESHEALTH aims to target high purchasing power countries such as the United States and Japan, starting with ophthalmology, dentistry, and hair loss, and plans to expand its services to critical care medicine. So, it has established a database of over 7,000 doctors from university hospitals and advanced general hospitals, along with information about the medical fields. This database will be continuously updated. They have set the goal of utilizing electronic questionnaires to attract international patients, enhancing service sophistication, and leveraging the accumulated technology for Korean medical care.
Kim said, “When a foreign patient visited my hospital, I felt uncomfortable seeing them unable to properly explain their symptoms due to different language. There was also the inconvenience of needing to go through an interpreter during a tight consultation schedule. Experiencing these issues, I decided to develop technologies that would alleviate the limitations of language and borders. Subsequently, I obtained patents for an AI questionnaire management system, AI-based electronic chart and standard EMR auto-generation method, and methods and platforms for providing non-face-to-face medical consultation services, leading to the development of our digital health-care solution. And we will enhance accessibility to Korea's excellent medical technology and infrastructure based on our accumulated technological capabilities. Through this, we aim to grow into a medical technology company that assists in the treatment and management of patients worldwide.”
By DongJin Kim (kdj@itdonga.com)
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