Foreign IT companies are leaving the Russian market
At the end of February, Russia faced sanctions
All this led to an outflow of foreigncompanies from the Russian market. Some have suspended their activities, others have decided to leave forever. A large proportion of these companies are in the technology sector (device manufacturers and software vendors).
Here are just a few examples from the list of companies,who decided to stop working. Apple announced it would stop shipping new devices and limited the operation of Apple Pay and the App Store. Similar statements were followed by Asus, Siemens, Microsoft, the creator of the most popular operating system for computers with a share of about 90% in Russia, as well as the most popular office suite.
Google Ads has suspended showing ads to Russiansusers and forbade running ads in other countries. Roskomnadzor recognized the American company Meta, Facebook and Instagram as extremist and banned their activities in Russia.
The introduction of sanctions by Western countries maywill also have a negative impact on new medical technologies, such as bionic engineering or biotechnology, due to the fact that most of the research equipment is supplied from abroad.
Therefore, for further work, clinics will have torebuild business processes and look for alternative solutions. Even if the issue of import substitution is resolved in the near future, introducing new technology will still not be easy. The integration process takes a lot of time and requires tens of thousands of new specialists, so you shouldn’t expect that an alternative will be found quickly.
What will happen to the telemedicine market under sanctions
Despite the situation in the country, the telemedicine marketin Russia will not suffer from sanctions, but, on the contrary, will continue to develop. Since the services that have been helping clinics to remotely contact patients all this time are domestic.
There is a demand for the service, and it will only grow. According to RBC, in 2017–2019, the volume of the medical teleconsultation market in the country grew almost 6 times and reached 1.07 million appointments.
When the pandemic hits in 2020, the marketshowed record growth, and in 2021 not only maintained its position, which market participants feared, but also continued to grow. In 2021, the increase was 9.7%, to 4.95 million teleconsultations.
Number of teleconsultations in 2017-2021
According to experts, by 2025 the volume of investmentsto Russian telemedicine companies will increase to 96 billion rubles. The global market size, according to Global Market Insights, will exceed $175 billion.
The development of medical technologies is also facilitated by solutionswhich are accepted by government authorities. For example, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation plans to create and launch digital services in public medical institutions by 2024, improve the State Services portal, and so on.
In addition, in 2021 the state decidedsupport the IT industry, and in 2022 introduced additional support measures in connection with sanctions. Some of these measures are to exempt IT companies from paying income tax for three years, provide grants for the development and development of IT products, and ensure accelerated import substitution of software through targeted budget funding etc. Assistance to IT companies at the state level will accelerate the development of the Russian IT sector.
But since, due to Western restrictions, the cliniclost the opportunity to promote their services, track the actions of potential visitors using foreign analytics systems, they will still have to look for alternative solutions. In this case, telemedicine can become an additional platform for advertising the clinic.
This is confirmed by representatives of the sector:
“I recently did a survey among my patients:What do they look for when choosing a doctor for the first time? In most cases, “word of mouth” is the opinion of friends who have already visited this specialist. They also read reviews on the Internet, look at ratings on specialized resources,” said Yulia Sorokina, an endocrinologist and nutritionist at the Juno Medical Center.
Telemedicine - the ability to constantly be oncommunication with patients and, thus, increase the number of consultations in an additional communication channel. For example, to work with people from other cities and countries who find it difficult to get to the clinic.
Next, we will tell you what a telemedicine service should be able to do.
How can a clinic choose a telemedicine service?
Clinic, medical center, laboratory strive toautomation in order to increase work efficiency, and also try to look for a service with which it will be possible to close more different tasks. In this way, you can optimize the working time of doctors and provide the best service to your clients.
What opportunities does the telemedicine service provide:
- Consult from anywhere in the world.Patients get used to their doctor,Therefore, they try to always be in touch with him. If earlier you would have to go to him for a second appointment from another city, now you can just call. For clinics, online consultations are an opportunity not to be limited only to the locality, to collect a customer base and grow their loyalty.
- It is more efficient to use the time of a high-demand specialist.In the same amount of time, a sought-after doctor can help more patients, because online usually takes less time—typical questions are discussed faster.
- Instantly inform the patient about the next steps.An example from the practice of our client: according to the results of ultrasound, a nodular formation was detected in a patient. According to the old regulations, the patient needs to make an appointment and come to the doctor for an appointment, then get a conclusion and only then get a referral for additional examination. Using the online consultation service, the doctor can give a recommendation to the patient on the day of the ultrasound results, without wasting precious time.
- Send personal information to the doctor through secure channels.Doctors and patients often need to exchangetest data, medical histories, photographs, and so on. Before telemedicine, patients sent various information about themselves via instant messengers, which was not entirely convenient or safe.
It is important that the telemedicine service be flexible andadapted to the needs of the clinic. Additional tools will help increase the client's LTV (profit received from one client for the entire time of cooperation with him), and, consequently, the financial result of the clinic.
Let's analyze a few additional functions using the example of our service.
Recommendation for next appointment.When leaving a conclusion, the doctor may recommendpatient re-appointment. Then, on the approaching date, the application will automatically offer to make an appointment with a doctor. This is an optional option for the patient: he can either refuse or agree. However, useful for clinics. Doctors who used this function in the iBolit service were able to increase the conversion to repeat appointments by an average of 20%: from 30 to 50%.
Uploading new files after receiving.When files are uploaded by a patient or doctorthe interlocutor receives a push notification about a new file in the reception card. In this way, clinics can distribute their promotional materials, branded brochures with recommendations and memos to increase loyalty.
Automatic survey system about the patient’s health status after consultation.Another option to increase loyalty.Each client after the consultation receives one of four statuses: treatment is prescribed, diagnostics, face-to-face appointment is being repaired, treatment is completed. Further, when doctors fill out a report, iBolit asks patients about their health status.
These additional options make it easier for patientsthe process of interaction with doctors: you don’t need to keep anything in mind, you have confidence that if something happens, the doctor is always there to give you advice and ask about your well-being. This all affects loyalty. And it is important to improve it - pay attention to what patients need and implement it in your clinic. For example:
- Do not wait for the patient to seek help. Ask him through the application about how you feel after taking it, if the treatment helps. Such attention from the attending physician is very valuable.
- Don't forget to reply to every review. Patients will see the answers and appreciate such attention from the clinic and the individual doctor.
- Support patients during illness.You can organize chats where the doctor can monitor the patient’s health status for a week or two, answer questions and give recommendations.
With this functionality, clinics will be able to grow their loyal customer base, revenue and average bill.
Departure of Western Instruments from the Russian Marketshocked many clinics. It seems that this will greatly slow down the work, since an alternative has not yet appeared. You can be calm about telemedicine in Russia. The instruments are domestic, and therefore they will continue to work on the Russian market.
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