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UAE: Want to consult a doctor in 30 minutes? New app to connect patients with GP in as little as half an hour

MyAster app aims to provide hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and pharmacies services with direct access to an integrated portfolio of medical services

Leading healthcare groups in the UAE are adopting innovative digital healthcare technology, assisting patients to video consult with a general practitioner as early as 30 minutes after an appointment.

This comes as Aster DM Healthcare, one of the largest healthcare providers in GCC and India, officially unveiled the full-fledged version of myAster app, the region’s first integrated healthcare platform, on Monday.

Complementing the existing strategic focus, particularly in a post pandemic world, the app also has an Instant GP feature enabling users to tele-consult with a GP in only half an hour.

Brandon Rowberry, CEO of Digital Health, Aster DM Healthcare, said, “Now our users have access to 200+ Aster hospital doctors for appointment booking. The user interface is easy to navigate, and they can view doctor schedules and slots to select a doctor for consultation. We are also launching our Instant GP feature enabling our users to video consult with a General Practitioner as early as 30 minutes. As we continue to innovate, we will be adding Homecare services to the myAster app in the near future."

The app aims to provide access to hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and pharmacies with direct access to an integrated portfolio of medical services, including medical history, reports and results 24x7, as well as appointments and reminders.

Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare, said, “The pandemic actually helped us to really understand what really works as far as digital health is concerned and what might still take time for us to adopt and shift to. We realise that it's great to be able to order your groceries, it's great to be able to get your Starbucks Frappuccino in a few minutes. But what is much more important is to be able to have access to care when you need. We know that UAE has been at the forefront of managing the pandemic.

She adds, "We talk about hotels, we talked about the airline industry, but with the pandemic, we realised how do you manage healthcare on the ground? We felt as an industry and with the regulator, we thought about how we move healthcare to the next level. The way to do it is digital as the UAE has a 98 per cent mobile phone penetration."

From booking appointments with doctors, one can do tele-consultations, patients can get medicines at home, and the system even takes care of insurance approvals.

The free medical app offers several unique features that are aimed at helping Aster's patients to access and manage their health data anywhere and at any time through their smartphones.

"So, everything is available at one's fingertips. The whole idea is to make sure that people have it easy. I call it the five E's. You have easier access. You have an enhanced experience. You're able to be much more engaged because you have access to all the data, which otherwise is sitting in bits and pieces in files with one of your doctors in one hospital or the other. So, we think that with MyAster, we truly give the responsibility and the ability for our customers and our patients that we've promised to take care."

The group's Digital Health Team has innovated and developed the solution over a period of two years, curating and enhancing the customer experience with the potential to offer healthcare and wellness solutions to over 10 million people.

Key features

Some of the key features of the app include booking appointments from among 430 doctors across five hospitals, 48 clinics and over 20 medical specialties.

The app also allows video consultations, online payments through secure gateway, access to online pharmacy with doctor prescription delivered to homes within 90 minutes, and order health and wellness essentials online as well as to avail offers and deals.

Through the app, patients can also access their scans and medical reports.

The myAster app, supported by a fully functional help centre also comes with an inbuilt automatic insurance integration and approval and features such as storage for patients to save and keep records of all healthcare documents for the entire family on the digital platform.

Rowberry, adds, “the integrated insurance system is something that no other app ecosystem in the region has. That is something that will help our customers with transparency issues. Why do I not know what I'm going to pay for? You can do that now in my answer. We're launching instant doc soon, which means you can get online with the doctor in just a few minutes. We'll also be launching our own care and other services as well as start to stack on the artificial intelligence or other algorithms that will help you care for your family, even greater here in the near future.”

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