Ministry of Science and Technology of Viet Nam

Initiative for Startup Ecosystem in Vietnam

CEO of MedOn and the try-it-wrong journey with the companion

For Mr. Le Duc Nguyen - CEO of MedOn, starting a business is a long and persistent journey, as well as a continuous maturity, improvement process in terms of products, and an unlimitedly expanded range of business models and technology solutions.

 

From the misery of visiting the hospital with his mother

Born in a rural North Central region, the memory of Hanoi in him is where his father used to work. However, his trips to the capital were mainly with his mother for her medical treatment. For Mr. Nguyen, hospitals are somewhere which have very long lines of people waiting for medical examinations. Each visit to meet the doctor usually took a week, so for him, that was such a precious and valuable moment.

Although he became a Hanoi Medical University student, and then he went to practice in many hospitals, that scene still repeated continually without many changes. He could feel the power when he wore the blouse. His family and relatives often more or less ask him for advice and guidance to make the process easier. Thanks to the medical profession, his mother’s treatment process is easier than others.

He wondered sometimes, how a patient without any family members and acquaintances in the medical profession could answer a series of questions that he and his mother had faced and gone through at the hospital to decrease hardship, gain more knowledge and confidence.

His phone number could be added to the contact of many people. But he knew that not everyone in his had a doctor's phone number.

"What we aspire to when we work together to create the MedOn digital medical platform is that everyone who installs MedOn on their phone has at least one doctor to help them solve a lot of problems in the medical treatment process and use of medical services", Mr. Nguyen shared.

MedOn is a platform that creates a protocol to connect, interact between users in need of care, health consultation with a team of doctors and medical professionals. MedOn platform is developed including MedOn application for users (patients), MedOn Doctor application (for doctors and partners), e-commerce website medon.vn.

According to Mr. Nguyen, besides remote medical examination and treatment, one of the important roles of digital health startups is to establish a habit of care and disease prevention.

Citing the statistics, he said that the reason that Vietnam has a high rate of people suffering from chronic and incurable diseases (about 7 million people are diabetes, 25 percent of the population has cardiovascular disease, 47 percent of people over 25 years old are at risk of high blood pressure, and every year there are 180,000 new cancers, 15-20 percent is suffering from hepatitis B,...). Not only the environment but also the fact that people do not have the habit of preventing sickness and giving regular medical examinations.

On average, Vietnamese only see a doctor 1.5 times a year. Meanwhile, this figure in developed countries is about 5-6 times a year, especially Korea, which records up to 17 doctor visits per year.

Digital medical services help doctors to serve more patients while reducing waiting times, arranging more scientifically for faster visits and more cost-effective examination, boarding, and travel fees. With these roles and meanings, Mr. Nguyen thinks that digital healthcare should be promoted, startups in this sector need more support to contribute to building capacity for the whole health sector.


Mr. Nguyen Le in an event on digital transformation to revolutionize healthcare

 

The try-it-wrong itinerary 

Mr. Nguyen shared that the first difficulty of MedOn is to transform ideas into practical utilities and products, to catch customer needs, to develop technology solutions in a methodical and long-term manner for upgrading, expanding, and integrating other solutions.

Another challenge is to grow a technology human resource with the same desire, the same ideal, and the same determination to develop and be together in a long way with the product.

"Because we know that this is a distant journey, many difficulties and challenges, it is unlikely to succeed and achieve the expected growth", CEO MedOn said.

Mr. Nguyen calls a startup the journey of growing up from trauma.

“The traumatic lesson I think any startup encounters is that more than once, they have to rebuild their entire core of technology in the development process. I think it is inevitable for the growth and maturation process in terms of awareness, goals and vision”, shared by the startup founder of MedOn.

For him, starting a business is not to stop at the meaning of beginning a new idea or new business model. It also means to start from a very primitive foundation, actually having almost no clear leverage. Along with that, startups have to face many difficulties such as the crisis of trust in a team, crisis of strategy, development model, crisis of vision, and goals.

"It is inherently a journey that can be called impact, stumble to get lessons, to be better, also known as a journey of trial and error and we are not the exception," Mr. Nguyen shared.

 

And ideal companions

"Startup is a journey that can be called crashing, stumbling to get lessons, to be better, also known as a journey of trial and error and we are not the exception"

Mr. Le Duc Nguyen - CEO of MedOn

If other startups are very difficult to prove their ideas, find and call for financial sponsorship of investors, MedOn is luckier and more advantageous when they have the companionship and sponsorship of the head of Medlatec Group, a leading corporation in the field of providing medical services in Vietnam.

It is the person who not only sponsors MedOn financially but also inspires, shares desire, determination and leads the MedOn team with the right direction derived from very practical experience in medical operating and business administration.

That helps the MedOn team to focus highly on the implementation of the ideas, to work really with their passion and aspirations.

"He is an ideal angel for a startup, that's the same reason for us to choose him as a companion", Mr. Nguyen added.

According to Mr. Nguyen, the companion decided to choose MedOn because this startup stems from him - a doctor. It is a very significant point in the medical field startup because the doctor is the one who understands the patient's difficulties most, understands what the patient wants most in the journey of experience.

Doctors who have medical expertise should understand the meaning of medical service, medical examination and treatment process, possible risks in health services, and understand the difficulties and drawbacks in the modes of traditional health service delivery. Thereby, they can develop technology products that are more suitable to the medical expertise, as well as not far from reality, address the pain points of users and providers.

“Of course at present, the research and development of MedOn products is being urgently proceeded. We are confident that our products will bring more useful values ​​to users next time”, CEO MedOn confessed

Besides, MedOn has a young, committed, persistent, and passionate team aspiring to contribute towards values ​​for themselves as well as the community.

That is why MedOn has a special strength that no company has: It has become a strategic and exclusive technology partner of the Medlatec health system. Thanks to the coverage of Medlatec's medical services, MedOn's solutions have the scope of providing services to people in nearly 50 provinces in Vietnam. In addition, MedOn is also a partner of the FPT Long Chau pharmacy system, which is a solid helper for MedOn to bring more useful values ​​and utilities to users.

Mr. Le Duc Nguyen - CEO of MedOn

Another companion mentioned by Mr. Nguyen is the early technology team leader.  It was a product builder with features based on the founder's ideas at the time when the MedOn team was "crashing indefinitely" to maturity.

Later, another companion appeared. It was a technology solution consultant invited by the angel investor. He shaped Nguyen to think methodically, clearly, with planning and vision. As a result, Mr. Nguyen could shape development models, short and long-term strategies to limit false trials.

“With a doctor like me, we could say that, like finding a guide at the right time. He is currently our Chief Strategy Officer.”

The fourth companion he mentioned is the CTO of MedOn. In spite of joining MedOn not long ago, but in a very short time, he solved the tough problem of MedOn during the past three years - the IT human resources.

“Now, MedOn can be confident in its long-term strategy methodically, with a plan and a solid foundation in technology. I believe that it's hard to research and come up with a relevant and valuable idea for the user, and its implementation is equally difficult. I temporarily call him the carrier", Mr. Nguyen said.

According to Nguyen, starting a business is a long and persistent journey, as well as a continuous maturity, improvement process in terms of products, and an unlimitedly expanded range of business models and technology solutions. At each stage of the development journey, there is a certain need for new and qualified companions to help them grow fast, sustainably and bring greater value.

“I feel that I have an affinity with talented people who have the same will. I am still looking for important factors in my team because I assume that people are the foundation and motivation of development.  I believe that when the time comes, the gifted come”, he explained.

Sharing his future vision, Mr. Nguyen expressed that MedOn would be a platform that enabling many companies to use, providing digital health solutions and services to a large number of people, aiming to be a digital health ecosystem and a super app in the field of health and insurance, solving most of the needs of people in the "life cycle of using health services" with useful digital solutions, reliability and suitable cost.

Source: theleader.vn

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OBJECTIVES OF NATIONAL PROGRAM 844 (ISEV)

Creating a favorable environment for the creation and growth of startups

Creating a favorable environment for the creation and growth of startups

Establishing and improving the legal framework for supporting startups

Establishing and improving the legal framework for supporting startups

Creation of National Startup Portal

Creation of National Startup Portal

Support 2000 startup projects with total value of 2000 billion VND

Support 2000 startup projects with total value of 2000 billion VND