Comments on: Telenor launches TeleDoctor VAS. Does it deliver value?

By: omar

omar — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:06:26 +0000

I think this is highly unethical that a doctor prescribing without examining a patient. In western countries it is illegal and practicing license of a doctor gets cancelled if he is found prescribing on phone. So far we have not been able to eradicate quacks(unqualified doctors) from our society, and now we have started another curse of teledoctor.

By: Telenor Teledoctor Service - Blogs a-buzz with discussion : Green & White

Telenor Teledoctor Service - Blogs a-buzz with discussion : Green & White — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:25:37 +0000

[...] alerts so that you keep up to date with the latest content. Now, on with the regular content… The Telenor Teledoctor service has certainly sparked a lot of interesting discussion on the web, some of it has some valid [...]

By: Sohaib Athar

Sohaib Athar — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:59:01 +0000

Apparently, Grameen Phone, a subsidiary of Telenor operating in Bangladesh, started a similar service a couple of years ago and was successful there… so that answers the marketing research question.
(I didn’t have time for fact-checking – just read the message on a mailing list)

By: Telenor launches TeleDoctor VAS. Does it deliver value? By G & W | Mudassar Ijaz's Blog

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:54:24 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Sohaib Athar

Sohaib Athar — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:55:09 +0000

I think the reason we are all speculating here is because no information from alpha/beta launches is available, which is surprising in the current circumstances.

More questions:
Did they just release this product with a price-tag, or did they do a limited-launch of some sort first? If it is the later, did they publish/share the results from that launch somewhere?
More importantly, what are the credentials of their TeleDoctors?…the ones who will be paid a fraction of 8 Rs. per minute, which will amount to less than 500 Rs. per hour, while their colleagues running private clinics can make the same amount of money from a 10 minute visit by a patient. Their service would be more credible if they publish their TeleDoctor profiles somewhere, no?

By: Osama A.

Osama A. — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:18:40 +0000

Haris – why?

By: Adnan Ali

Adnan Ali — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:16:06 +0000

Firstly, even well versed patients have trouble explaining symptoms. Clinical observation is a must. I have seen this first hand as my younger brother was very sick and in hospital for over a month recently. All the test results from various resources never matched, and the in-house doctor and other doctors seldom agreed on the meaning of the numbers. We put more weight on the doctor in-house because he was able to monitor and perform a clinical examination of the patient and thus could consolidate his medical opinion.

Secondly, I have seen some of the research that telcos base their VAS decisions on. I have to say that with the voice revenue crunch and push for more VAS and data revenue, telcos agree to add almost any service which does not cost them upfront or does not have a feature which some how is not allowed by telco policy.

By: Haris

Haris — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:51:52 +0000

the first scenario you gave is only valid for the specialists. GPs do not charge that much and you usually dont have to wait for them for that long.

i believe that this service is a disaster right from the beginning.

By: Obi Wan Kenobi

Obi Wan Kenobi — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:16:07 +0000

Mansoor, your whole argument is a moot. Do you really think people who could afford 400 for a dr. visit will call this service ? I would trust my gali muhallah dr. for any thing unless he is not available and I am forced to call this service and even in that case I will try to find first a dr. in my acquittance. And why do people prefer injection ? Because the meds are very expensive so they just need a quick fix and then they can’t take any day off from their work either

By: mansoor

mansoor — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:00:04 +0000

osama: preventive medicine is practiced by the people, not by the doctors. meaning there has to be a culture of taking care of yourself, which is sorely lacking. whenever i talk to my driver (or other domestic staff) this is one area i frequently hear of, that their elders or siblings back in the village are not health conscious enough to even consider that they may have something serious. its a whole ‘gaon’ thing i’m told.. :S

tee bee: its not supposed to be a first-call service anyway, but rather a consultative second opinion service. i’m sure that if you call up the first time, the doctor will tell you to get certain readings/tests done. (just like in a regular visit) Otherwise, they ask for symptoms which are indicative and can let a medical professional know what readings may be off. the services of a real live medical specialist can not and should not be replaced for the simple reason of having that human touch, otherwise, its a much more efficient use of their time to dish out advice over the phone :p

obi wan kenobi: the general gali muhallah doctor will always have their value as long as the ‘injection’ is available. have you noticed just how many people prefer to just have an injection rather than take tablets or have tests etc in the lower stratum?