Starter Kit. Idea 312 of 500. Cluster 15
Video-doctor services connecting Sri Lankan doctors to the parents of Sri Lankans abroad
The mechanism, from the book
The proof exists in Malabe. What is missing is a thousand small versions of it.
The first step
Ask a doctor you know whether they would take video consultations with elderly patients at home, and at what fee. Then ask 20 Sri Lankan families abroad, through their associations, whether they would pay a monthly fee for a doctor who sees their parents regularly and reports back. Paid sign-ups from families, with a doctor ready to start, are the proof.
- Who pays first
- A son or daughter abroad who worries about ageing parents at home and will pay monthly for regular checks and a report.
- What leaves today
- Doctors trained here emigrate to earn, while families abroad have no reliable way to buy care for their parents at home.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Medical Council. Ask what registration a doctor needs to give paid consultations by video.
- Data Protection Authority. Ask what care is needed with patient records shared with family abroad.
Check before you spend
Whether doctors may consult and prescribe by video, the patient's consent to share reports with children abroad, and the doctor's indemnity cover.
Find out these three numbers
- What monthly fee would a family abroad pay for regular visits?
- What fee does a doctor want for each video consultation?
- How many patients can one doctor see well in a week?
A comparison from the book
Who starts which. Appendix
"yours too: your parents are the customer."
The child abroad pays, the parent at home is cared for, and the fee stays on the island.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.