SINGAPORE: Digital healthcare group WhiteCoat opened its regional headquarters in Singapore on Wednesday (Feb 1).
Located in the one-north area, the 8,000 sq ft WhiteCoat Regional Headquarters will "serve as a hub to facilitate patient engagement and promote healthcare literacy across its markets", the group said in a media release.
WhiteCoat's new regional home will also "drive the group's strategic direction for profitability, expansion and product and technology development", it added.
The move comes as WhiteCoat, which began operations in late 2018 and recently launched services in Indonesia and Vietnam, looks to enter additional markets in the region.
WhiteCoat founder and CEO Bryan Koh said the group aspires to bring its "made-in-Singapore brand to the region", with users receiving "the same premium level of healthcare access regardless of where they are in Southeast Asia".
"WhiteCoat will be the region's healthcare passport where users, armed with our app, will be able to see a doctor and access myriad quality healthcare services anytime, anywhere," said Mr Koh, adding that the group is mindful that it should not seek "growth-at-all-cost" expansion.
"We are in a strong position to become the first digital healthcare provider headquartered in Singapore to reach profitability through organic growth and will continue to contribute meaningfully to our evolving healthcare landscape through digital innovation," he said.
In 2022, WhiteCoat completed more than 400,000 consultations and medication deliveries.
It currently operates in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam; and works with a network of more than 1,000 health and wellness providers comprising general practitioners, specialists, allied healthcare professionals and pharmacies to provide digital health services to more than 1.5 million people in the region.
The group is looking to expandfurther into new markets in the region, such as Malaysia and Thailand, and will be enhancing its offerings by providing specialist care and mental wellness services.
It will also seek local and regional partnerships with payers such as insurers and companies, as well as healthcare providers, to "continue to spur digital transformation in the healthcare sector", the group said.
Speaking at the opening of WhiteCoat's headquarters on Wednesday, Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services IntegrationDesmond Lee said:"As a four-year-old tech enterprise, WhiteCoat is an example of how Singapore companies can tap on technological innovations and government initiatives to remain resilient amidst the challenges of an ever-changing world."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital solutions made the difference in enabling Singaporeans to access healthcare and helped to relieve the strain on clinics and hospital infrastructure, said Mr Lee.
He added that companies like WhiteCoat – one of the telemedicine providers for the COVID-19 home recovery programme – were crucial to Singapore's efforts to pivot quickly to offer medical services to Singaporeans in a very short period of time.
Mr Lee noted that even before the pandemic, WhiteCoat was one of the pioneers that participated in the Ministry of Health's Licensing Experimentation and Adaptation Programme (LEAP) regulatory sandbox for telemedicine and mobile medicine in 2018.
"You created a new, innovative digital healthcare experience for patients to consult with doctors virtually, all while adhering to the stringent clinical and security standards set out under the sandbox," Mr Lee said.
"Through your app, patients can consult with a team of qualified doctors who, in turn, can see and diagnose patients virtually, and prescribe the necessary medications which are then delivered to the patients' doorsteps.
"This spirit of innovation and bold use of technology, with a focus on meeting the needs of users, is what will allow Singapore to adjust quickly and remain relevant in this changing environment."
