Nepal’s receptiveness to new tech innovations and how AI is transforming healthcare
Koshish Budhakothi, Co-founder of Dr. App in Nepal, shares an in-depth view of the healthcare landscape in the Himalayan nation and how it is poised to adapt AI-driven healthcare solutions moving forward.
Nepal is a developing country with access to healthcare in general and equitable healthcare more precisely is still in its early stages. Healthcare facilities are concentrated more in a handful of cities and there are peri-urban/rural communities lacking proper access to healthcare. There are significant disparities in access to healthcare service delivery, facilities, infrastructures, and availability of qualified medical practitioners based on the geographical location of the cities/urban/peri-urban places.
The idea behind coming up with Dr. App was derived from the gap in healthcare we felt even living in the capital city. First and foremost coming from a nonmedical background/family we always had to ask others and rely on other’s opinions regarding the selection of a particular doctor or say medical institution irrespective of their knowledge of the subject matter. We either had to ask others or simply do a comprehensive Google search ourselves. Secondly, even if we found one we had to wait in queues for our appointment and that too only after payment was made. We also had no easy way to compare health check-up packages or let’s say find out about our regular medicine requirement unless we had a physical visit to a drug store. Then we figured out that if such a situation persists in the capital city, what could be elsewhere? This led us to identify similar problems in accessing healthcare gaps across other peri-urban cities of Nepal. Lastly, Nepal is a predominantly remittance-based economy with most of the active population migrating abroad we also identified the gap among the non-resident Nepali population’s dependent family member’s access to healthcare.
We just tested our concept a year back and came up with Dr. App with only the information listing of doctors and clinics. After over a year’s observation and market demand, we have now integrated online booking/payment features in Dr. App which solves the initial problem that led us to develop this solution. Much needs to be done in Dr. App to provide a complete cycle of solution which we are planning for the coming days.
Although the tech industry is gradually gaining pace with more and more tech companies opening up and new tech innovations flooding the market tech innovations are mostly concentrated in fintech in Nepal. However, as far as the healthcare landscape goes increasing access to equitable healthcare through the use of tech innovations is equally gaining momentum.
Dr. App is one of the few companies that is providing a one-stop tech solution to boost an equitable healthcare landscape in Nepal.
The beneficiaries, channel partners, and intermediaries in this chain are ready to step into new tech innovations in healthcare which is also prevalent from how the intermediaries and beneficiaries working with Dr. App have demonstrated their receptiveness towards the use of technology in accessing healthcare in Nepal. Not more than 6–7 years ago getting a doctor’s appointment or buying a medical health checkup plan from the comfort of your smartphone would have been a distant reality which has certainly changed now.
The COVID pandemic in 2020 and the following years have readied Nepal for new tech innovations happening in healthcare. There has been a rise in large metro hospitals adopting automated hospital management software which was not prevalent a decade back. Having said that majority of small to medium-sized clinics and diagnostic centers which are the largest in numbers spread geographically are still not using that level of technology and are relying on conventional means. Dr. App views these channel intermediaries as crucial partners for creating an equitable healthcare landscape with the use of technology.
In contrast to the developing economies elsewhere, Artificial Intelligence is something novel in the context of Nepal and the use of AI in creating equitable access to healthcare is something that the healthcare landscape of Nepal has envisioned but not actively operating at the moment.
We at Dr. App are among the few of the companies who are going through this early tech innovation/intervention in creating proper access to equitable healthcare in Nepal which is slowly gaining momentum over the last 3 years. As far as the transition to AI in healthcare is concerned we are preparing ourselves for the near future where we foresee the use of AI in healthcare. Given the estimated timeframe for readiness towards AI adoption in Nepal, some AI features in Dr. App itself are in the pipeline which is likely to address certain preventive aspects in healthcare.
Empowerment of AI in the healthcare landscape in Nepal and the consequent readiness of Nepal in AI adoption also depends a lot on what is happening in neighboring countries, India in particular more than China due to cultural and geographical similarities shared by Nepal with India. Similar to the growth of fintech in India and its consequent spillover effects in Nepal over the years I see similar implications for AI in healthcare in Nepal.
Dr. App is part of a dynamic cohort of the AI4Health Asia accelerator spread across Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. AI4health Asia is a 10-month accelerator program designed to promote and nurture innovations in Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) in South and Southeast Asia.
Learn more about the program here: villgrophilippines.org/ai4health/
*This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.
