Doctor Global plans to make 'house calls' in Bali
By Rob Goodfellow
WOLLONGONG, Australia (JP): Dr. Simon Leslie and the island of Bali go back a long way. He and his wife Margaret went to Bali on their honeymoon in 1980. Over the years the couple have twice taken their children -- Brendan 16, David 12, and Alexandra 8 -- to the island for holiday.
Dr. Leslie set up in 1993 a self-contained emergency medical clinic at one of Indonesia's most famous surf breaks and organized a roster of doctors to care for injured surfers from around the world. In the late 1990s, as the president of the Australian branch of the Surfers Medical Association, he organized three international conferences in Bali and East Java's G-land.
The medical clinic Dr. Leslie founded proved its worth on Jan. 3, 1994, when a tidal wave hit the G-Land surf camp at 2 a.m. Resident doctors were able to provide immediate care to a large number of tourists and residents.
These days Dr. Leslie has a new surfing challenge. He is the Australian chief of operations for www.doctorglobal.com.
Doctor Global is the first medical organization in the world to provide direct doctor-patient medical consultations via an interactive web site. The doctor-owned and operated Internet service is organized by a group of experienced practitioners who believe medicine on the Internet can greatly assist consultations in person.
The site now has 30 registered and Clinical Advisory Board- accredited doctors based in Australia and New Zealand who provide online medical advice through 11 "e-clinics". Topics include general medicine, nutrition and sexual health, travel medicine, advice about allergies and the control of pain, cardiology and mental health.
Doctor Global is currently investigating finger sensors, which can read and then send a range of vital signs over the web, including blood pressure, pulse rate, glucose and potassium levels. The organization also sees an opportunity for patients with home monitoring systems feeding directly into databases to assist in early detection and appropriate management of diseases and illnesses.
Doctor Global connects consumers to doctors, as opposed to most medical web sites that connect people to nonspecific search engines. It is best described as a "Virtual Health Center", providing direct patient access to health professionals. Anyone using the site enters his or her medical history, demographic details and credit card data after completing a specific "e- clinic" questionnaire.
Currently, Doctor Global has over 1,400 registered patients with hundreds of new international enquiries, referrals and consultations each month.
Consultants are appointed on the basis of recognized expertise (the consultation fee is US$20 or AUS$25 or $NZ30). The uniqueness of the site is that it provides a web-based medical service accessible from any Internet-linked computer in the world. With the increasing popularity of "cyber cafes", registration is poised to become an accepted travel accessory.
Dr. Leslie was quick to point out, "This is the way of the future. The front-end of the website focuses on services to the individual. The back-end will feature personalized pre- employment, occupational and travel health services for corporations. We are excited about providing these services everywhere -- especially in Bali."
Dr. Leslie maintains the company's online consultations and his collegues' ability to efficiently refer to North American, European and Asia-Pacific medical facilities make it very attractive to the corporate, executive and holiday travel insurance industry. For example, Dr. Leslie feels that most insurance-related "Asian cases" could be managed by Internet and "telemedicine", possibly to the level of 90 percent of all occasions of service. Insurance companies could then send their teams to pick up those who needed to be evacuated, thereby eliminating unnecessary inconvenience or risk to the client and cost to the travel insurance company.
"A relationship with Doctor Global will add a great deal of value to travel industry products -- such as airline flights, hotel accommodation and adventure tours," said Dr. Leslie. "It is all about giving people the confidence to relax and enjoy their holiday without the stress of having to think about how to access medical care away from home."
Bali currently attracts about eight percent of the world tourist market, valued globally at US$112 billion a year. This makes Indonesia's most famous holiday destination an obvious place for Doctor Global to make "cyber house calls".
Rob Goodfellow, based at the University of Wollongong in Australia, is a writer and Indonesian cultural consultant to Western businesses. He can be contacted at sujoko@ozemail.com.au