Jordanian start-ups defining the health tech space
By: Bank Al Etihad
Tags: Startup, Entrepreneurship, Bank Al Etihad, Silicon Valley, Healthcare

Early movers are emerging to ease specific problems faced by health practitioners as well as patients, but these are early days yet and they have scratched only the surface of health tech.

Few Jordanian entrepreneurs have ventured into the health tech field so far, but those who have taken the plunge are making big strides as they benefit from first-mover advantage.

From enabling remote doctor consultations to providing discounted medicine for those who can’t afford it, health tech start-ups in Jordan are filling important gaps within the healthcare system.

One of the best examples is Altibbi. With offices in Amman and Dubai, the digital health platform provides access to thousands of medical articles and health advice columns. Through its app, it connects users with accredited doctors within minutes via private voice calls.

“We reduce all kinds of physical visits to specialists and hospitals by at least 50%, by providing a primary care Telehealth option. People can call a general practitioner 24/7, conveniently and cheaply, and have conversations with any of our doctors,” said Jalil Allabadi, Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Altibbi.com.

Users have two options on Altibbi. A basic service enables them to ask questions and get answers for free from verified doctors. For a subscription of around $5 a month, users get unlimited tele health consultations in real-time.

With the availability of such a platform, the need to visit a specialist is expected to decline, which in turn will save money for insurance companies, government and employers, Allabadi said. Most importantly, the app provides an easier and more affordable option for patients who are unable to afford the high costs of medical services while also connecting those who live in remote areas.

Organic growth

In the last eight years, Altibbi has grown to become the largest digital health provider in the Arab world with more than two million pages of content and a round-the-clock tele health service in 12 Arab countries. The company is planning to cover North Africa and expand to adjacent markets such as Pakistan and Bangladesh.

“We have 18,000 doctors registered on the platform who contribute with content. We get 20–25 million visits every month, and we run about 5,000 consultations every day within the Arab world,” Allabadi said, pointing out that growth has been organic. Rather than do market research prior to starting, the company evolved by reacting to demand and building the product accordingly.

“When we digitised the first Arabic medical dictionary and put it online, we were among the very first companies putting any [Arabic] medical content online, so we were highly indexed and ranked by Google, which gave us access to a lot of organic traffic from around the Arab world. That was our main tool for assessing demand and it was how we validated our ideas,” he said.

Defining the problem

Like Altibbi, Jordanian health tech start-up Medicine Box is facilitating access to healthcare but in a different way. Through its stock management tool Medicine Bank, the company connects medicines that are approaching their expiry date with vulnerable, chronic-disease patients, who can buy them from pharmaceutical producers and local pharmacies at reduced prices.

Founded by a group of entrepreneurs from community organization Mahali Innovation Lab, with support from the International Rescue Committee, the novel concept won second prize, worth $10,000, at the Start-up Roadshow 2.0 competition, held in Amman in November 2019.

Unlike some start-ups that replicate existing solutions, Medicine Bank defined the problem and developed a new, tailored solution.

“Through field research and conversations with pharmacies, we realized that lots of medication was being returned to the factories and destroyed [because it was nearing its expiration date]. We started working on using this medication to implement our solution,” said Manal Al Najjar, one of the team members who worked on developing Medicine Bank through Mahali.

When it comes to B2B solutions, Jordanian start-up Dawatech has designed a pharmacy management software to improve patient care and the profitability of pharmacies, facilitating their daily work and saving them time and money.

According to the company, the software enables pharmacies to get full control over their inventory, billing and accounting, track purchases and sales operations, and keep their data secure with a reliable hosted system.

Dawatech has already achieved a milestone by signing an agreement with Zain Jordan in November 2019. Under this deal, the telecom company will provide its customers in the pharmaceutical industry with Dawatech’s advanced solutions. To further accelerate product adoption, in January 2020 Dawatech offered new users two months’ free subscription, encouraging industry members to recommend it to their colleagues.

Ease of starting up

Starting a tech-based business in Jordan has its own advantages. The country is currently positioning itself as a hub for computer programming in the Arab world, with plans to train hundreds of thousands of Jordanians from the ages of six to 46 on reading and writing code, the “DNA” of computer software, apps and websites. The goal is to expand job opportunities and overcome an 18.9 percent unemployment rate.

On the other hand, new industries don’t generally receive much support, which means a start-up in the health tech space might need to go through the difficult process of educating the market before actually introducing its product.

That said, times are changing, and the need for health tech is becoming more apparent, making it easier to work with the private sector and government, Allabadi said. “We’re getting there; it’s just a matter of time. Companies need to be able to show the value they bring to the table and then slowly, people will start listening.”

Altibbi has won the confidence of numerous investors, having raised a total of $8.5 million in funding over two rounds, the latest of which was in October 2017.

Across the region, health tech start-ups continue to emerge. While many are doing more of the same — offering doctor booking services — some are coming up with innovative concepts. For example, Egypt’s TakeStep was created to help recovering addicts from relapsing, by leveraging the power of technology to discreetly connect the different stakeholders of the addiction process, including patients, their families, guardians and specialist doctors.

Allabadi noted that there is room for more health techs that cleverly address mental health, for instance. “Real health tech is not there yet; we have barely scratched the surface. I expect more will happen, especially in Egypt and Jordan, around mental and behavioral health.”