E-Health: Primed for Acceleration in the Philippines

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Philippines' e-health sector is capable of accelerating to 17-19% CAGR from 2022 to 2025, effectively becoming one of the keys to the sustainable growth of the country's healthcare system, according to UnaPharma, the Philippines' first digital medicine reservation platform.

This is despite the slow economic growth, and how global healthcare spending is set to grow by 4.9% only in 2023 for both the private and public sector according to the Economist intelligence Unit. Yet what is in store for the country as digitalization contributes a huge role in gaining a sizable lead in the industry?

Digitalization as a healthcare catalyst

With the rapid commercial development of electronic medicine and e-Health in the country steadily growing, the Philippines is well-positioned to gain a sizable lead over the global 2022-2027 compound annual growth rate of 11.3%. In support, Statista values the Philippine Digital Health market at $684 million (the 2022 revenue), with 12.7% growth potential for 2022-2027.

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that in the wake of the pandemic in 2020, health spending had exceeded 900 billion pesos or a 12.8% which had quadrupled compared to the previous years. With the practical implementation of initiatives similar to the Philippine Health Facility Development Plan 2020-2040, there is every reason to expect that the growth in the healthcare sector in the country will continue in 2022-2023. A survey of insurers conducted by Willis Towers Watson stated that there is promising growth of global healthcare spending and is expected to hit its highest level in fifteen years, rising by 10%.

While there are barriers including the increase of inflation, as well as the disruption of the supply chain of foreign medicine and medical equipment, the country will leverage on the digitization of healthcare in general as one of its state priorities to support and address the sector's growing demands.

Sustainability in local e-Health

The supply of e-Health services in the country is growing very rapidly, with a favorable regulatory environment which is a contributing factor to the development of the sector. This includes more recent IT Solution examples supported by both foreign and local companies, UnaPharma being a standard for its innovations for this sector.

This pace can be maintained thanks to the above-mentioned factors, as well as a few others. These include: the inevitable influence of the wellness solutions segment (which directly stimulates the development of e-Health solutions), the rise of the Philippines as a destination for health tourism (with the potential to increasingly become more online-based), and the coordinated efforts of non-profit organizations.

Still, the formation of a full-fledged national digital economy will remain the main factor of influence. The e-Health sector will also stimulate the development of the ever growing digital economic infrastructure, with UnaPharma being a prime example of an innovative digital space.

Alexander Goriainov, the Chief Executive Officer of UnaMarket, said: "While we see a certain level of attention to telemedicine, with the Department of Health featuring a special section on their website with accredited telemedicine providers, we see only a handful of pharmacies fully embracing online. UnaPharma's platform will allow pharmacies to reach customers more efficiently and in turn, assist in developing the market as a whole by improving access to medicine and making them more affordable."

Bringing light to a new beginning for this sector, all these factors promise to be one of the main guarantees for the further sustainable development of the Philippine healthcare system.