The largest online medical appointments platform in Bahrain is set to be launched later this week.
Called ‘medical.bh’, the mobile application and online platform is expected to make it easier for people to find a doctor and book an appointment.
Driving the advanced service will be the direct integration between online medical appointment requests and doctors’ in-house systems providing real-time and accurate appointment bookings.
The application has been developed by Invent Information Technology Systems (Invent ITS) and powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) with the support of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).
Invent ITS co-founder and chief executive Ali Al Halwachi said the new platform will help people save time when looking for, and going to, a doctor.
“It will also help motivate other Bahraini entrepreneurs to develop new applications such as this,” he said.
On the sidelines of the Press conference, Mr Al Halwachi told the GDN that his company had been working on the idea for nearly 10 years.
“However, the preparation and set-up took time as it was important to be well prepared.
“What’s going to make this application special is that it’s going to have a very strong database – more than 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the private health sector uses our systems which the application is tied to.
“The application is going to be fast and secure which is very important in the medical industry, and it’s going to have a tracking system which is different from any other application in the region.”
He added that they had 200 doctors each of whom will be filmed giving health advice which will then be uploaded on to the platform.
“We want this kind of interactive communication between the users.
“We want to change how we book doctors’ appointments online; we want it to be easy – click and you get your appointment,” he said.
The doctors can use tools on the platform to communicate with their patients, including via live chat, and plans are underway to add video conferencing and add more features until 2025.
Mr Al Halwachi stressed that the application has been developed entirely by Bahraini youth.
The application has undergone stress testing with AWS and it is expected to be launched on Thursday.
Medical.bh can be found in the Android and iOS stores.