THE MAKATI Medical Center (MMC) is piloting a mobile phone and video-based “tele-consultation” system that would allow its doctors to provide healthcare consultations during the community quarantine period. The initiative is in partnership with digital payments firm PayMaya Philippines, Inc.
“Once the consultation is over, patients will receive an SMS from their doctor which will contain details on how they can pay for the consultation fee via their PayMaya account. Aside from this, each doctor participating in this service will have his/her own PayMaya QR code which they can ask patients to scan using the PayMaya app to pay the teleconsultation fee,” PayMaya said in a statement on Wednesday.
The tele-consultation service uses video conferencing apps like Zoom. Patients with existing doctor-patient relationship is the minimum eligibility requirement and those who do not require immediate or urgent care.
Saturnino P. Javier, medical director and interim co-chief executive officer of MMC, said he hopes the service would be able to provide “much-needed expert medical advice to our patients who are staying home while we continue being on the frontline fighting the COVID-19 pandemic here in the Philippines.” — Arjay L. Balinbin
