Docosan

Docosan operates a healthcare marketplace in Vietnam that lets patients search for hospitals, clinics, individual doctors and testing centres by symptom, specialty, service or city, compare prices, read patient reviews, and book appointments without a booking fee. Bookings cover in-person visits, home visits and online consultations, and the platform also offers home health and lab test kits and a medical store. The company states it is a technology company rather than a clinic, hospital or laboratory, and that listed providers are verified and licensed [0][1][3].

On the supply side, Docosan sells a provider growth system consisting of listing and customised clinic and doctor profiles on docosan.com, DocosanPro (a digital booking system, automated patient communication and reminder tools, and telemedicine), and "growth accelerators" that increase visibility on the site and blog through organic search. DocosanPro, available on web and mobile, is positioned as an appointment- and patient-record-management tool that reduces reliance on paper records [4]. Docosan describes itself as a fourth-generation health technology platform and says it has worked with more than 2,000 medical facilities across Vietnam, with stated future ambitions to expand into smaller provinces and other Southeast Asian countries [4].

Coverage spans specialties including obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, dentistry, dermatology, psychology, endocrinology, cardiology, oncology, HIV/AIDS treatment and traditional medicine, and provider listings across Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and numerous provinces. The platform is available in Vietnamese and English, including a filter for English-speaking providers, and offers 24/7 medical concierge support [0][1].

Founding story

Founder and CEO Beth Ann Lopez was preparing for US medical school when she joined the US Peace Corps and was posted to Cambodia in 2012, where she observed limited public clinic hours, medicine shortages and doctors using public health centres to recruit patients for their private practices. After four years of regional work including consulting and work with Thailand's public health administration, she completed a master's at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she met mClinica founder Farouk Meralli; she interned and then worked full-time at mClinica, moving to Vietnam. Seeking to return to community health and healthcare access, she started Docosan in February 2020 [6].

Business model

Docosan runs a two-sided marketplace: patients book at no charge, while healthcare providers pay to participate in the platform's growth system, which includes profile listings, the DocosanPro booking, communications and telemedicine software, and additional visibility on the site and blog. A partner quoted on the company's provider page refers to a "cooperation fee" charged by Docosan, describing recorded revenue exceeding the amount spent on the program [1][4].

Revenue comes from healthcare providers rather than patients: providers pay cooperation/participation fees for listings, the DocosanPro software suite and marketing visibility, while patients pay no booking fee [1][4]. The platform has also added online payment features and insurance integrations [5].

Traction

At the April 2021 seed announcement, roughly 50,000 patients had used the app for bookings and the platform had more than 300 individual healthcare providers, from small family paediatric clinics to neurosurgeons at large private hospitals [5]. The provider-facing site later cites 500,000 monthly active users and collaboration with more than 2,000 medical facilities across Vietnam [4]. Reproductive health and mental health were described as the leading booking categories [6].

Latest developments

The platform currently offers online consultations, home visits, home testing kits and a medical store alongside clinic bookings, and markets the DocosanPro suite to providers with claimed reach of 500,000 monthly active users and more than 2,000 partner medical facilities [0][1][4].