Call the doctor very quick: startup launches e-platform for doctors and patients

Patients can now make online booking for preferred doctors.

DoctorPage claims it improves healthcare access across Asia by providing a convenient and user-friendly platform that enables patients to search and book appointments with their preferred healthcare providers in a few simple clicks.

The website, DoctorPage.sg, was launched in September 2012 and claims it provides the quickest, most reliable and user-friendly platform for doctors and patients in Singapore and progressively, Asia.

DoctorPage was founded in June 2012 in Singapore by Max-F. Scheichenost, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Dawn Soo, Co-Founder and Chief Information Officer (CIO), and Daniel Endres, Chief Operating Officer (COO).

"The e-health platform is a free portal for patients, with clean pages that are easy to navigate, whether they are looking for doctors by specialty or by location," said Scheichenost

Once a selection has been made, the website responds quickly and at a glance, users are able to see the doctor’s experience, affiliations, the location of his clinic and even concise directions to get there. Patients can then make real-time appointment bookings with their preferred doctors and will be able to see a doctor as early as the same day. In addition, patients will also be prompted when there is an available slot that was cancelled last minute to decrease the waiting time to see a doctor.

Scheichenost also noted that DoctorPage also functions as a platform for doctors to provide relevant information about their practice to potential patients. Doctors may include details such as professional mission, description of area of specialization, qualifications, hospital affiliations and professional memberships. They may also include professional pictures of themselves, their colleagues and practice.

Additionally, a complementary customer relationship management system (CRM) is provided to the healthcare professionals to help optimize patient flow and clinic efficiency, he added. 

DoctorPage launched its mobile website in October 2012 to help patients book doctors’ appointments on the move. It launched the updated version of the iOS and iPad applications in November, and they are available for download on iTunes. 

Since its establishment, DoctorPage claims that it has become the number one e-health portal in Singapore, according to Alexa, global web metrics provider.

Currently, it has more than 12,000 doctors online with 400 doctors on its database with an active real-time appointment booking system.

In addition, the DoctorPage mobile application has been ranked the fastest healthcare app of its kind by users in Singapore and was awarded a five-star rating by users in the iTunes App Store. At the same time, medical professionals in Singapore have given their seal of approval to the app as the number one mobile app they trust. 

"The upside potential of DoctorPage lies in the aggregation and specialization of the service. Doctors have the benefit of a physician and a team of online-marketing experts as founding managers, maintaining their website and looking out for important details to constantly improve the product. On the other hand, patients find a clean and user-friendly product which will take the hassle out of making appointments with
the specialist they seek," said Scheichenost.

According to Scheichenost, with an increasing adoption rate from both doctors and patients, the team behind DoctorPage is able to "efficiently" react and respond to feedback provided by users. This gives DoctorPage, he said, the opportunity to develop and improve the service, ensuring that it meets the needs of both the medical professionals and patients.

DoctorPage is continually working to build a greater experience for all parties involved, be it on the web or mobile. Scheichenost shared that the focus from the beginning has been to build a "highly scalable IT-infrastructure" so that it can internationalize quickly. However, DoctorPage also wants to concentrate on specific markets where it can build an "absolute" market leader position – as it is the case for Singapore. With plans to expand to the rest of Asia, DoctorPage envisions to be the largest e-health portal in Asia.

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COMPANY PROFILE

Name of the company: DoctorPage.sg
Founder/Founders: Max-F. Scheichenost, Daniel Endres, Dr Dawn Soo
Website: www.doctorpage.sg
Major Investors:
Michael Brehm is the Founder and Managing Director of Rebate Networks, one of the leading Daily Deal holdings worldwide. He also facilitated the establishment of VZ Netzwerke, Germany’s largest Social Network and has investments in many of Europe’s leading internet companies.
Damian Doberstein is Co-Founder of Russia’s largest e-commerce company, KupiVIP.
Christian Gaiser is the Founder of KaufDa, (acquired by Axel Springer AG in 2011) and CEO and Founder of Bonial International Group, the largest network for location-based shopping information worldwide.
Tim Marbach, Founder of KaufDa and Business Angel, Value Invest, a venture fund that specializes in e-commerce, Alps Ventures, as well as other prominent investors from Singapore.
Total funding at hand: Cannot be disclosed
Target fund: Cannot be disclosed
Source of funding:
Start of operation: June 2012, Launched 18. September 2012