KUALA LUMPUR: IHH Healthcare Bhd
‘s journey into digital healthcare could be a boon to both business growth and patients alike given its growing importance in the healthcare services industry.
With digital health covering a broad scope including mobile health, health information technology, wearable devices, telehealth and telemedicine and personalised medicine, AmInvestment Bank Research is positive over the healthare provider’s adoption of digital health.
“We are positive on IHH Healthcare’s venture into digital healthcare as this should lead to better operating efficiency and improved patient experience,” it said.
As an example, AmInvestment said it would allow hypertension patients to reduce their frequency of visits to hospitals by submitting their blood pressure data periodically to the hospitals, while doctors will be able to focus on more serious cases.
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning can also be applied in certain areas such as detecting abnormalities in patients’ scans and X-ray readings,” it added.
The brokerage noted that IHH’s launched its telemedicine services in May 2020 and plans to develop its digital healthcare capabilities over the next three years with a US$100mil (RM418mil) allocated funding.
Meanwhile, IHH invested in a minority stake in telehealth start-up Doctor Anywhere in March last year.
According to AmInvestment, the start-up is based in Singapore and offers on-demand healthcare solutions through a digital platform, aiming to provide quick access to health and wellness solutions from anywhere.
Separately, the brokerage expects IHH’s earnings in 3Q21 to decline quarter-on-quarter due to a lower revenue contribution from IHH Laboratory.
With the easing number of daily new Covid-19 cases in India, there have been fewer tests for the virus administered.
IHH’s Laboratory arm generated RM975mil in 1H21 but is not expected to repeat the performance given the easing of India’s covid cases to about 20,000 in September from a peak of about 400,000 in May.
“Although the number of elective surgeries may increase in 3Q2021, we expect that these would not be enough to offset the impact the lower earnings from laboratory tests,” said the research house.
AmInvestment currently has a “hold” call on IHH with an unchanged fair value of RM6.29.
