MaNaDr admits to lapses, introduces 1-minute minimum teleconsultation rule

Since getting its clinic licence revoked by the Ministry of Health (MOH) last year for providing teleconsultations that were too brief, MaNaDr says it has implemented more stringent protocols to avoid such lapses in service moving forward.

During a press conference held on Wednesday (April 2), telehealth provider MaNaDr's co-founder and chief executive officer Siaw Tung Yeng said that doctors using the platform will now need to conduct teleconsultations for at least one minute before medical certificates can be provided to patients, reported CNA.

At the same time, MaNaDr will also be tightening onboarding processes for doctors and clinics using the platform, he said. The firm has since employed the use of an AI-powered note-taker which will transcribe doctor-patient conversations and implemented mandatory audio recordings.

It also intends to build an AI-powered "checker" to assess consultation notes and suggest additional questions for doctors to ask, allowing doctors to "focus more on patient care", CNA quoted Dr Siaw as saying.

"We are more committed than ever to creating a safe, ethical and effective platform to rebuild patients’ trust in telemedicine," he added.

At the media briefing, Dr Siaw highlighted that operations at its City Gate clinic and its telemedicine technology platform MaNaDr are separate.

He stressed that the licence that was revoked applies only to its physical clinic managed under a subsidiary called MaNaDr Clinic Pte Ltd, which he said was "independent and manages itself".

He added that while MaNaDr Clinic's licence has been revoked, teleconsultations are still being conducted through the MaNaDr app by "50 to 100" clinics using their own remote licence.

Dr Siaw admitted, however, that they "could have done a better job" to prevent the abuse of its telemedicine services, reported The Straits Times, and said that it was a pivotal learning moment for them to upgrade their services.

Licence revoked in Dec 2024

MOH revoked MaNaDr Clinic's licence to provide outpatient medical services in December last year, following investigations that revealed "an entrenched culture of disregard for the applicable ethical and clinical standards exists within the organisation".

According to MOH, a "very large number" of cases involved video call teleconsultations that lasted for a minute or less, and ended with the medicine prescriptions and issuance of MCs.

There were also "cases of multiple medical certificates issued over a short period to the same patients", according to an MOH press release on Dec 20, 2024. 

In some cases, patient notes were also disproportionately detailed compared to the short duration of consults, while others had been "extremely sparse or brief", potentially compromising the continuity of patient care.

Following the revocation, the company no longer operates any clinics in Singapore.

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