Chula Care Application: A Three-Year HealthTech Journey by KBTG

From aging society to the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s no denying that HealthTech is the hottest trend in 2021. Among the 500+ applications that KBTG is in charge of is Chula Care application, a HealthTech innovation by KBank and King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. This project has been on-going for more than three years now, though the ride has not been easy. We turn to Bank, Project Manager, and Pook, Enterprise Architect, to learn more.

As the PM, can you tell us a bit about Chula Care?

Bank: Chula Care is an application that helps service patients of the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital and facilitate staff member’s working process. There are many incredible features in the app:

• Make Appointment since the hospital mainly offers long-term treatment, appointments are set up several months in advance. Familiar with how the memory fades with time, this feature will remind patients that they have an appointment in 30 days, and repeat periodically until the said date arrives.
• Visit Guide before patients can go see the doctor, they have to stop by the kiosk or rendezvous spot first. This function will list all the actions they need to complete or where they need to head to.
• Payment due to countless steps in the process, after seeing the doctor, patients normally have to wait for the bills and medicines for a couple of hours. With Chula Care, the bill will be processed at the same time as their doctor’s appointment, allowing them to complete the payment through the app instead of having to head down to the ground floor to pay, then coming back up for the medicines.
• Medication Collection the time spent waiting for payment is nothing compared to medicines. To speed up the process, patients can now choose to collect medicines from 7/11 closest to them. This also helps reduce large gatherings at the hospital and the risk of COVID-19 clusters. This feature was first deployed during the Songkran festival and has since received positive reviews.
• Caregiver the average age of the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital’s patients is around 55–60 years old, making the possibility of them visiting the hospital by themselves slim. Usually they would be accompanied by their children or grandkids, who might find difficulty extracting the patient’s data. With this feature, the young relatives can now login to the account with their own information and patient’s hospital number (HN) to access said data, learning of their illness and which clinic they are supposed to go to.
• Donation there are multiple foundations available for donation. Users can also request a receipt for tax deduction.

In addition to these, Chula Care plays a big part in streamlining the COVID-19 vaccination process. If you’re registered at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the app will display your information, including the scheduled location and time. When the first dose is done, it will notify you about the second dose.

Another feature that deployed just last week is TeleClinic. This lets patients consult with doctors and receive diagnosis through the app. We are currently piloting two clinics with the possibility of expanding in the future.

In terms of data, how are you involved in this project?

Pook: My responsibility is to create the data hub or data foundation for King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. Initially, the hospital would store data in separate systems. KBank and KBTG spotted the opportunity to improve the service’s quality for the goods of both the hospital and patients. The hub collects patient’s data, as well as the staff member’s, which makes it easy to find and access.

To develop the data hub, we had to construct a whole new infrastructure for the hospital. That means we had to validate the infrastructure setup while making sure it complies to the hospital’s policies. With sensitive data such as this, we had to present the concept and solution to several committees until the plan was collectively approved. Once the infrastructure was done, it was time to decide on the use case that requires data reconciliation to confirm its completeness and accuracy, before being input into the new system.

What challenges did you face in the beginning?

Pook: My primary challenge was convincing the hospital’s management team how data could bring value to their service. We gradually explained the benefits of having a data hub and tried to establish our expertise in technology. Once succeeded, they allowed us to discuss with their working team and kickstart the project. Despite multiple frictions and obstacles along the way, our team was willing to push through relentlessly.

Bank: Not only does this change affect the management team and us, it also affects staff member’s and customer’s behavior. For King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital’s patients, lives don’t start at 10 am like those of private hospitals. Instead, it begins at 4 am where they rush to the hospital, reserve the spot with their shoes, and run to the kiosk to check if they are qualified for free treatments. With the help from Pook’s team, their lives can now start at 7 am. It might not seem like a lot of time, but it is valuable for those who need every minute. Another challenge is opening the staff’s mind. Initially, there were some people who thought that the old system was fine, why do we need a new one? We had to enlist help from the management team to show them that the new process was not meant to disrupt them, but to help them work more efficiently.

Is there any valuable lesson you’ve learnt from this project?

Bank: First thing is communication. One scenario that discouraged me in the past is when there are many executives, different opinions tend to ensue. Your idea could be approved by one person and rejected by another. The best way to tackle this is to schedule a meeting with everyone present. If they disagree with anything, we resolve it right then and there. The second lesson is the working process. In the beginning, I noticed that some junior team members would develop based on their own knowledge rather than seeking customer insights, so I told them to go to the hospital at 5am and witness the real process because there’s no way they can design or empathize by sitting in the office. If going there wasn’t possible, then go talk to the staff, have them share their experience and design the solution together. By doing so, they will feel a sense of ownership and be happy to spread the word about the project automatically.

Pook: In terms of personal achievements, knowledge is the first thing that comes to mind. For someone who works in the banking industry, I get to extend my knowledge to healthcare, learning about the characteristics of data and various processes. Secondly, I learn how to adapt to different workplace cultures such as King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. Organization-wise, KBTG gets to bring their technology and capability to improve the system for the hospital. It’s like combining each side’s strength for us to thrive together, giving birth to a Healthtech innovation that benefits Thailand greatly.

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