Telemedicine: Health Care of Tomorrow

From Teladoc.com (hat tip Prof Mark Perry)

1. You wake up one morning with sudden cold-like symptoms: stuffy nose, cough, congestion. You don’t want to miss time at work by sitting in an urgent care or ER waiting room. What to do?

2. Simply log in to your account or call 1-800-Teladoc to request a phone or online video consultation with a Teladoc doctor. You can use Teladoc from home, work, on vacation, or while traveling internationally. The average doctor call back time is 22 minutes.

3. A U.S. board-certified doctor or pediatrician licensed in your state reviews your Electronic Health Record (EHR), then contacts you, listens to your concerns and asks questions. It's just like an in-person consultation. There is no time limit to the consult.

4. The doctor recommends the right treatment for your medical issue. If a prescription is necessary, it's sent to the pharmacy of your choice.

5. Teladoc costs far less than in-person visits: $38 or lower, depending on your plan design. Teladoc charges the credit card you provided when requesting your consultation or your billing information on file. You can request a receipt for deductibles or reimbursement, if needed. The doctor updates your HIPAA-compliant EHR based upon the consultation. Teladoc is a qualified expense for HSA, FSA and HRA accounts.

6. At the end of every call, the doctor will ask if he's answered all of your questions, and we'll follow up to make sure you're delighted with the service.

I am hoping to see telemedicine flourish not only abroad but also in the Philippines soon.

I understand that the Philippine government has initiated telemedicine aimed at the remote areas. But I don’t think the government is the answer.

And yes this could be seen as a sunshine investment opportunity.

Nonetheless, considering the exponential growth of the internet in the Philippines, where usage now is about 6.3% of the population and growing...

Chart from Google Public Data

...digital healthcare trends will surely be headed in this direction.

The Best Global Retail Opportunities Are To Be Found In Emerging Markets

A.T. Kearney in a recent report says that retail opportunities are to be found in Emerging Markets. There are three aspects why this would be so; namely, lower rents, the growth expansion towards tier 2 cities and lastly acquisition.

The first is lower rents.

Here we quote the Wall Street Journal,

``According to the consulting group, there’s room for growth in places such as Dubai, where the housing bust has left many a glass tower empty and is helping to ease rental prices. Builders are starting to lower the price of retail space in Eastern Europe as well.

``Cheaper rents in the emerging markets are good news because that’s where the economy is expected to rebound this year. While GDP continues to sink in the U.S. and Europe, it is forecast to rise in many developing countries on the back of expected 5.2% average growth in nations like Brazil, Russia, India and China — the so-called BRIC economies. And with the economy back in positive territory, the developing world’s growing middle class should soon be ready to open its wallet again."

The second aspect could be found in the tier 2 cities or cities which could benefit from the expanding logistical networks arising from the congestion or saturation of tier 1 or major cities.

The retail cycle as illustrated by AT Kearney

Again the same Wall Street Journal article urges western companies to take advantage of this time restrained opportunities, ``Western retailers should be quick to pop their heads in the emerging part of the world, A.T. Kearney warns. The window of opportunity to seize share in an emerging market usually lasts around seven to 10 years, “when real estate is still inexpensive, logistics networks are beginning to improve, consumers are beginning to spend their disposable income on branded products and there aren’t a lot of competitors around.”

The last would be acquisition opportunities. The recent crisis has exposed some emerging market retailers to deep financing problems, yet these companies carry valuations that are attractively low.
So acquisitions could come by with inherent advantages of "key distributions, consumer insights and premium real estate footprints."

Unfortunately, the Philippines ranks 25th, nearly at the bottom of the 30 emerging markets incorporated in the study.