Hi, it’s Edmund.

When used appropriately, virtual healthcare can improve patient health, reduce costs, and make medical care more equitable and accessible to anyone who has a smartphone.

Around the world, COVID-19 has given a boost to telemedicine services, largely due to social distancing restrictions.

But will demand for telemedicine remain high as the pandemic eases and life returns to normal?

According to an Ernst & Young report, telehealth demand will grow even after the pandemic. More people are expected to tap telehealth services because of ease of access and convenience. Moving forward, for telemedicine to work, healthcare providers and other ecosystem players must collaborate to address privacy and security risks as telehealth demand grows.

This week, we chatted with Dr. Shravan Verma, CEO and co-founder of Speedoc, a virtual medical care provider that leverages technology to deliver hospital-level home healthcare to patients. The startup recently closed USD 28 million in a pre-Series B round to scale its virtual hospital model despite the current uncertainty in the macro economic environment. Read the Q&A here.

In The Bullet this week

The word “billionaire” often triggers thoughts of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, or even Jack Ma—but these names are only a small handful of those with nine-figure bank accounts. As of 2022, there were 2,668 billionaires in the world, with Southeast Asia accounting for 128 of them. How many of them can you name? And if you can’t name any, why do we tend to have a fascination with western billionaires and not those from other regions?

Read Degen’s column here.

RECENT POSTS

FUSE Vol. 3 opens on December 14 in partnership with 36Kr Global

Air freight — the new battle arena for courier companies

Japan’s Euglena eyes biorefinery in Malaysia for sustainable fuels