I also turned to meditation to calm me down and help make the path somehow clearer. When I meditate, I can suddenly think of certain solutions, especially when I close off all my senses. And a lot of times that kind of intuition has worked out. Like when we faced the real possibility that we couldn’t pay our employees. In moments like that meditating can help me find an idea—it is usually who I can reach out to in our network of supporters.
Having such a network and continually going out there to make new connections has saved us more than once. For example, I was invited by the Singapore Management University to share a bit about Speedoc with their students. One of the student mentors happened to be there and was intrigued by what we were building. After some more conversations, she ended up being one of our very early Angel investors. So, you never know who your next supporter will be.
Through and beyond the pandemic
When the pandemic struck, we became involved in supporting frontline healthcare efforts. From COVID screening at dormitories to at-home vaccinations, we continued to demonstrate the value and possibilities of fully decentralised mobile healthcare—even if it sometimes meant scrambling to pull together the necessary resources.
And unlike many other changes introduced during the pandemic, what this year has really shown is that the need for our hospital-at-home concept goes well beyond the pandemic and there’s huge demand for non-COVID conditions, too. So, what we’re hoping is that 25 per cent of today’s hospital admissions can be managed at home and that Speedoc can offer that.
I believe that in three to five years, almost every hospital will have a home-hospital programme to be able to better address their patients’ needs. But right now, they’re not set up for running a home-hospital programme. And that’s where we complement and support them.
As told to Nicole Lim, Senior editor.