New treatment option for COVID-19 patients presenting with mild symptoms
 
Despite its negative impact on the public health, COVID-19 has over the past two to three years spawned several innovations in Thailand’s healthcare sector including a new
Home - based outpatient care system for COVID-19 patients.
 
Jointly developed by National Health Security Office (NHSO), Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and Good Doctor Technology Thailand (GDTT), this novel healthcare service system is primarily intended for patients confirmed to have COVID-19, presenting with only mild symptoms of infection (classified as ‘green’ cases ), and having no other risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes  including being in the age group of 60 years and older or having an underlying medical condition.
 
COVID-19 patients in this green category can now register online for the home-based outpatient care service, in which medications are delivered to their home so that they won’t have to travel to the hospital unless later developing more severe symptoms. When the first wave of COVID-19 erupted about two to three years ago, all groups of infected patients were admitted to the hospital for treatment which had resulted in the enormous workload and a shortage of hospital beds, said NHSO deputy secretary-general Dr Atthaporn Limpanyalers.
 
But later when the number of new patients with mild symptoms of infection who are classified as the green group has become between 50% and 80% of all COVID-19 infected persons, home isolation and care has therefore been adopted as the main approach in handling new infections, he said.
 
Especially now that the highly transmissible Omicron variant, normally causing mild symptoms of COVID-19, has become the dominant strain, the Ministry of Public Health already has resolved to adjust its COVID-19 care policy to treat people infected with
COVID-19 mainly as outpatients, he said.
 
After all, not all COVID-19 infected patients find it convenient to travel to the hospital to see a doctor in the outpatient Clinic/Department whenthey are infected. And that is the reason why the NHSO has come up with more treatment options for them to choose from for their convenience.
 
One of these options is the distribution of necessary drugs and medical devices to COVID-19 patients through more than 700 pharmacies taking part in the NHSO’s COVID-19 home isolation and care programme, said DR Atthaporn.
 
SPRING UP, a mobile application owned by SCB DBANK and operated by GDTT, which has been being used to serve COVID-19 patients in the green group, is another option brought in place for patients with non-severe COVID-19, he said.
 
“Of course, those with moderate or severe symptoms of COVID-19 will still have to go to the hospital for treatment,” he said. “Meanwhile, the green group patients who do not have any underlying medical conditions or aren’t in the senior age group may choose to receive medications from a pharmacy near them or opt for telemedicine service that is provided via SPRING UP.”
 
SPRING UP, developed as part of SCB’s social responsibility programme, is available for free downloading in both App Store for iOS users and Play Store for Android users, said Chalee Asavathiratham, Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) and Chief Digital Banking Officer of SCB.
 
The application actually has various other health-related services, including the provision of advice on balanced physical exercise and diet, in which artificial intelligence (AI) is used to calculate calories of food a user is about to eat and suggest how much exercise he or she should do later.
 

The AI works by analysing a picture of food taken using the mobile application.The  telemedicine service is jointly operated by SCB and GDTT, said Mr Chalee.
 
 
“Technology has been adopted to improve convenience of the people and help ease their worries,” he said. “We have even talked about getting it done within a full hour from seeing a doctor (online) and getting a drug prescription when the drugs are delivered to the patient at home.”
 
“Sometimes, in 60 minutes you still are waiting for your turn to see a doctor if you choose to go to the hospital,” he said. “This channel is high-speed and convenient, aside from that you won’t have to risk getting infected or infecting others.”
 
GDTT has made it possible for patients, in Indonesia and Thailand, not only be able to see a doctor online but also to seek advice from other health professionals including pharmacists, nutritionists and psychologists, said Dr Sudhichai Chokekijchai, the medical director of GDTT.
 
Starting in the previous wave of COVID-19 in Thailand when Delta was the dominant variant, GDTT became a part of the NHSO’s home isolation and care programme for COVID-19 patients, he said.
 
At that time, the programme covered between 3,900 and 4,000 patients in Bangkok, he said.
 
Now that the COVID-19 care policy has been adjusted to be an outpatient-care approach, he said, SPRING UP allows infected patients to register for the COVID-19 care service online by themselves and even without having to call the NHSO 1330 contact center for help or travel all the way to the hospital to see a doctor.
 
After testing positive for COVID-19 using an antigen test kit, all these patients have to do is download the SPRING UP application, fill out their personal information required, identify themselves through the application, click the Register button, and then wait for a staff member to contact them.
 
When contacted, these patients will then be able to begin seeing a doctor online. Afterwards, their prescriptions will be sent online to a pharmacy closet to them and their medicines will as soon as possible be delivered to them by a rider of the Grab delivery service.
 

Again 48 hours after that, a doctor will contact them to follow up on their condition.
 
“This service is intended for all Thais with any healthcare rights, even though those under the social security system wasn’t covered in the beginning while pending a work coordination process,” said Dr Sudhichai.
 
And although only COVID-19 patients in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces are able to use this online service for now, the service will in the future be expanded to cover patients in all parts of the country, he said.
 
More importantly, aside from the online COVID-19 care service, other telemedicine services are also available in the same mobile application, he said.
 
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