Healthcare in Cambodia is primed to benefit from the rush towards digitalisation and a potential spike in investment, according to Dr Vireak Chea, the chairman of EuroCham’s health committee. He made the comments at a EuroCham webinar about business sentiment and opportunities in a post-Covid recovery Cambodia.

Chea noted that the onset of Covid-19 has made it even harder for patients to access adequate healthcare and there remains a need to be able to remotely connect patients to health services and providers.

Lockdown, in particular, prevented patients from being able to visit health centres physically, something that should not keep people from receiving the care they need, he said.

Chea is the chief executive officer of Community Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy inside Makro which offers remote delivery services for orders.

He’s also the founder of PillTech, which he describes as “a digital healthcare marketplace allowing pharmacy owners to purchase approved medicines from a single platform for their retail stores”.

Chea noted that Covid-19 created restrictions of movement at a time when people needed to have their health checked and have access to medicine.

He said, “This creates difficulties for people in general when they get sick. They need their medicine. They need their health checkups. I believe there’s a need for development of a digital solution to allow remote consultation, diagnostics and delivery of medicine.”

Chea believes that there are opportunities for potential investors in the healthcare industry in Cambodia as well, with the lack of pharmaceutical manufacturers constituting one of the biggest needs. He added that the recent trend of healthcare reimbursement through insurance has a high likelihood of attracting some of these bigger pharmaceutical companies.

Positive notes that could attract potential investors, he added, include a rapidly growing industry, an even playing field, simple company registration, cheaper labour and high English-speaking skills in the workforce.

He said if a company could figure out the “pain points” in the industry in Cambodia and succeed, they could easily apply their business model elsewhere in the ASEAN region, where many countries face the same issues.

“If you look at a strategic move, Cambodia is in the middle of ASEAN where it’s easy to ship to any other country. If you want to build a factory, this is a good location,” he told Khmer Times. He added that the Council for the Development of Cambodia also provides perks such as duty-free imports on production equipment and raw materials.

Chea believes relying more on technology in healthcare will create across-the-board upgrades in the industry.

“Digitalisation in the healthcare industry will definitely boom in Cambodia. I foresee pharmacy owners adopting technology to aid their daily operation, whether it’s point of sales, inventory management, expiration date alerts or just to keep track of their sales in general.”

Chea has already launched a beta version of TOVPET, an app that connects patients to doctors remotely. Patients can search for doctors according to their symptoms and have medication prescribed electronically.

He said regulations will have to guide these practices – and he’d be open to working with the government to create them.

Eurocham’s Business Opportunities guide, released in conjunction with the webinar, identified a rising demand in Cambodia for improved healthcare.

“The growing middle class is increasingly willing to pay privately for more reliable, sophisticated forms of medical care, creating a wealth of opportunities in this sector,” it said.

“Opportunities lie not only in importing pharmaceuticals, but also providing training and expertise in medical technology, laboratory technology and biomedical engineering. Other opportunities include the supply of medical equipment and the provision of health insurance.”

• Tags: digitalisation, Dr Vireak Chea, Healthcare, investment