Globe Group and Mexico’s Salud Interactiva uplift PH healthcare through digital solutions

It has been seven years since leading Philippine digital solutions platform Globe formed a joint venture with Mexican company Salud Interactiva for an all-day health service hotline. Today, the two industry leaders continue to make healthcare more accessible to the public through improved digital solutions that can be easily accessed via mobile phones.

Globe and Salud Interactiva are among the main proponents in the consolidation of the Philippines’ three market-leading digital health apps into one superapp that will address consumers’ health needs on a greater scale.

Set for launch in the first quarter of 2023, the KonsultaMD superapp integrates Globe and Salud Interactiva’s KonsultaMD with telemedicine platform HealthNow and home care provider AIDE. The new superapp will be packed with first-in-the-market features on end-to-end patient care that will help the country’s healthcare system better address customers’ evolving needs.

The new KonsultaMD superapp combines complementary online and offline services and offers on-demand and scheduled consultations, same-day medicine delivery, home-service diagnostics, doctor visits, concierge services, nursing care, fitness coaching, nutritional counseling, and more.

Pedro Yrigoyen, Principal and Co-Founder of Salud Interactiva, said that as early as 2015, they have been working with the Globe Group on providing health services to Filipinos through phone consultations. He said KonsultaMD has helped improve access to healthcare since then, with 12 million quality teleconsultations completed over the years.

“The greatest impact of telehealth thus far has been the democratization of healthcare, wherein hundreds of millions in savings are generated for those who cannot afford health insurance or cannot afford to see a doctor,” said Yrigoyen, whose team flew to the Philippines to take part in the closing event for the consolidation held recently.

Salud Interactiva is the largest Hispanic telehealth assistance provider globally, with over 6 million users and 10,000 registered healthcare providers. It partnered with Globe’s wholly-owned unit Yondu in 2015 to form KonsultaMD in the Philippines.

Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu noted that the partnership is part of Globe’s evolution into a digital solutions platform that seeks to address problems such as access to healthcare in the Philippines.

“Six out of 10 Filipinos pass away without ever seeing a doctor, and many Filipinos today still live in communities without any access to professional medical services. These are problems that Globe aims to solve through its reach, technology and network,” said Cu, in reference to a University of the Philippines study.

The consolidation of KonsultaMD, HealthNow and AIDE follows the closing on August 18, 2022 of the agreement among Globe Capital Venture Holdings, Inc. (917Ventures), the corporate venture builder of the Globe Group, Ayala Healthcare Holdings Inc. (AC Health), the healthcare portfolio arm of the Ayala Group, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vigos Ventures, Inc., and Salud Interactiva S.A. DE C.V. to consolidate Global Telehealth, Inc. (KonsultaMD), HealthNow, Inc. (HealthNow) and APPPPS Partners, Inc. (AIDE).

The agreement brings together into one superapp KonsultaMD’s expertise in on-demand consultations, HealthNow’s strength in medicine delivery, and AIDE’s mastery of providing health services in the home.

To know more about Globe, visit www.globe.com.ph.

PHOTO CAPTION: AC Health Head of Corporate Strategy RJ Recio, 917 Ventures Managing Director Vince Yamat, KonsultaMD CEO Cholo Tagaysay, AC Health President Paolo Borromeo, and Salud Interactiva Founder Jorge Woolf celebrate the new KonsultaMD superapp, August 18, 2022.