| After obtaining shareholder approval at an EGM on 8 July 2021 to diversify its business into digital healthcare, Metal Component Engineering (MCE) has now outlined a roadmap. Key points: - Strong focus on geographical diversification of Gainhealth, MCE’s newly-acquired e-pharmacy business. - Identified other key areas of growth including remote monitoring powered by IoMT, homecare services and chronic disease management. - “Smart Hospital” initiatives, with preliminary discussion underway and West Java (Indonesia) identified as region of interest. - Appointment of a strong and committed management and advisory team to ensure realization of the Group’s vision to become the preferred service and solutions provider within the digital healthcare sector. |
Catalist-listed Metal Component Engineering has announced its expansion plans in the Digital Healthcare space to capitalize on the massive potential within this sector.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, adoption of healthcare technology has accelerated with higher utilization rates, with HealthTech usage growing by over 4x in the Southeast Asia region and has retained its users post-lockdown.
The Covid-19 pandemic has also lowered barriers to entry and accelerated digital patient support solutions, leading to greater commercial interest in Telemedicine and ePharmacy.
Having identified the opportunities within the digital healthcare sector, the Group has mapped its growth plans and will focus on a three-pronged approach laid out below.
1. Geographical diversification of its existing epharmacy business
Gainhealth Pte Ltd (“Gainhealth”), the Group’s recent acquisition in July 2021, is a vertically integrated healthcare service provider with a physical clinic, homecare business, and healthcare technology business through its ePharmacy arm that operates multiple online e-commerce portals, a high growth omnichannel health and wellness digital platform.
Currently having a presence in Singapore and Malaysia, the Group plans to expand to Indonesia. Indonesia has one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratio, as well as one of the lowest hospital bed-to-population ratio in the Southeast Asia region, and coupled with its huge rural population base, presents immense potential for telemedicine and epharmacy.
2. Further develop remote monitoring and care co-ordination
The Group will focus on developing capabilities within remote monitoring with Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) that is associated with the MedTel investment. This has been the focus for entering the homecare services and chronic disease management ecosystem with a data driven approach, and e-referrals within outpatient medical services.
Creating a managed care network with these partnerships under “Gainhealth Care Network”, which includes ambulance services, nursing groups, primary care clinics, day surgery and specialist partners, the group is looking at bringing better outcomes and controlling costs for outpatient care.
3. Entrant to smart hospital initiatives
For the next phase in developing complementary organic growth and inorganic acquisition opportunities, the Group has identified likely partners in Indonesia and a region of interest in West Java to implement its platforms for empowering provider groups under a “Smart Hospital” initiative, which aims to bring a telco and large technology partner together for implementation.
This will be facilitated through 5Digital Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of the Group and will be a proven SaaS, cloud based and edge capable platforms for digital health within hospitals and homes, leveraging on a network of partnerships with healthcare datacentre providers and device companies.
This will help health professionals in these hospitals to engage their patients and scale with improved technology solutions. Healthcare data will be the focus with secure analytics and revenue sharing opportunities on implementing new digital health services with hospital chains in the region.
The above initiatives are mapped to allow MCE to drive significant value for its stakeholders and create market leadership, which will require the leadership of a strong and committed management and advisory team.
The Group has therefore appointed the following leadership, a diverse and multidisciplinary team which is aligned to the Group’s commitment to a preferred service and solutions provider within the digital healthcare sector:
| a) Mr Ahillan Pupalasingam, as Chief Investment Officer for MCE and CEO of 5Digital Pte Ltd. He has over 20 years of international experience in senior roles for several Global Banks in the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore. He has also venture and private investment experience in Fintech and E-Commerce segments in the last few years. b) Dr Vas Metupalle, as Chief Medical Officer for 5Digital Pte Ltd. He is a healthcare entrepreneur with 13 years of experience as founder with Teleradiology (Clarity) and Telemedicine (MyDoc). He has experience regionally in implementing diagnostic and outpatient healthcare services for corporate health and insurance industry partners. c) Mr Mika Mikkonen, as Head Business Development for 5Digital Pte Ltd. He has experience in Telco and IoT verticals to enable “telco as reseller” – successfully launched with various telcos in over 31 countries. He is from Finland and lived in Singapore for over 8 years developing digital solutions for joint go to market with telco channels and cross-selling digital services. This includes areas covering enterprise digital security ecosystem, smart city and biometric systems. d) Dr Bernard Ng, as Board Advisor to MCE. He has extensive experience as a global medical director for consumer healthcare in Bayer, and has led several digital transformation initiatives, and advises promising healthcare start-ups. |
See previous article: Will this company get new lease of life? In healthcare/e-pharmacy venture?
