What was the motivation behind starting TONIC, health tech service in Bangladesh?

Tonic, the healthcare access provider from Telenor Health is a purpose-driven, digital health subsidiary established by Telenor Group in 2015. It is the first step in addressing NCDs and other pressing health needs. Its purpose is an extension of Telenor Group’s vision of “Empowering Societies” and its commitment to Asia as the group continually explores new ways to harness technology for the betterment of lives and communities. Telenor Health believes that all Bangladeshis deserve healthcare services that meet world class standards for clinical quality, and ensuring that our services are safe, effective, patient-centered, and accessible is a core operating principle for Telenor Health. Tonic is an expression of Telenor Health’s view that technology can have the greatest impact when it is used to ‘connect the dots’ across an individual’s wellness and health experience. It is one of the first digital offerings to address the full spectrum of wellness and health needs through a joined-up, integrated service. By combining preventionfocused digital content, phone-based access to primary care, and tools to finance hospital care, Tonic serves as the gateway towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and helps “members” and their families to make better choice across their health journey.

What are the services offered telenor heatlh under the brand name “TONIC”?

Tonic Doctor: Immediate access to advice on general medical queries from a trained doctor via the phone, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All registered Doctors are backed by robust quality standards and protocols.

Tonic Cash: Cash coverage (insurance) if hospitalized for three nights or more, paid directly to the member’s mobile banking wallet. Members can claim up to four times a year.

Tonic Discounts: Free access to discounts of up to 50% on bed rates, tests, specialists, and other services at over 1000+ of the most popular hospitals, pharmacies, diagnostics and lifestyle brands across Bangladesh.

Health Tips: Free tips and advice on how to live well and maintain a healthy family via SMS, the web, and Facebook. Content will become increasingly personalized over time as members continue to interact with Tonic.

Tonic Mobile App: The Tonic app was introduced which is tailor-made to meet the needs of a growing digital Bangladesh; providing information in Bangla and streamlining access to all of its core services – Tonic Discount, Tonic Cash,– from within the app.

Upcoming: Tonic Live Doctor: Hi-quality, end-toend digital solution through VDO consults plus easy medicine ordering and home delivery via Tonic App.

What is the response from the mass people about TONIC and its services?

In April 2015, Telenor Health replaced a local value added services vendor as the delivery partner for Grameenphone’s “789 Healthline” service. Launched in 2007, the Healthline provides Grammeenphone customers across Bangladesh with access to general medicine physicians over the phone at affordable rates, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Initial results are promising: the Healthline has delivered an average of 600-700 consultations per day for the past eight months, with customer complaints down and doctor satisfaction up.

In addition to leveraging the existing Healthline, the Telenor Health team also saw promise in GP’s “321 Health Tips” product, a paid-for service that provides daily SMS messages to customers on an array of health topics.

“There were about two million customers on the Health Tips service, so we knew that there had to be some consumer value in everyday health content,” notes Telenor Health chief growth officer Matthew Guilford. “The big question was how we could ‘go beyond’ the existing format of SMS messages in English to offer something more dynamic and compelling.”

What were the initial challenges that TONIC faced and how it overcome them?

To establish itself as a “proactive” healthcare access provider to a consumer group that is largely reactive to it, and mostly unaware of healthcare and treatment altogether due to lack of proper knowledge and education. Also, proper healthcare access being highly centralized to a specific segment of the country and expensive to the rest of community is also a big hurdle that Tonic saw in its early days.

How does TONIC differentiate itself from other technology based health-care providers of Bangladesh?

Tonic provides a bundle of essential healthcare services, in comparison to many of its competitors operating in the category. Being the pioneer in the sector, backed by its expanding customer base, robust infrastructure and tech based service map, Tonic is the one stop healthcare solution for its user that is clearly superior to any other solution.

Telenor Health, offers a range of solutions to help employers give employees access to medical care right when they need, reduce administrative effort and hassle, and help to promote a positive employer image. Telenor Health currently offer two core products to corporate customers in Bangladesh:

Tonic Advanced: Provides comprehensive coverage to support workers across all functions and levels. In addition to “health channels” on topics like NCDs and child health, Advanced provides high insurance coverage and free access to primary care over the phone, including new features like in-app doctor “chat” and one-step appointment booking with more than 2,000 physicians nationwide.

Tonic Premium: It is designed to be a step up from Tonic Advanced. It offers higher insurance coverage, virtually-unlimited access to primary care via phone and app, and additional features like reserved slots with renowned doctors and custom-designed health checks.

In addition to these core products, Tonic also provide bespoke employee health engagement support to corporate customers, ranging from push communications through voice, SMS, and email to dedicated, customized health tips.

What is telenor health’s vision regarding TONIC?

Tonic aims to provide access to healthcare, through technology. Exploring technology based solutions to secure basic healthcare assurances across all consumer groups and geo demographic segment of the market.