An Austrian surgeon-turned-entrepreneur founded an online medical tourism firm for providing better and more affordable healthcare to patients throughout the world.Published on : Tuesday, October 2, 2018
An Austrian surgeon-turned-entrepreneur founded an online medical tourism firm for providing better and more affordable healthcare to patients throughout the world.
Qunomedical connects patients with doctors and clinics in Germany and overseas, and helps them in accessing treatment outside of their home countries.
The medical procedure options range from health check-ups in Vienna to heart surgery in Berlin or fertility treatment in Bangkok and other places. Each month, around 7,000 patients coming from more than 50 countries use Qunomedical’s services. They receive treatment from doctors or hospitals in two dozen countries.
Ms. Chung’s firm is not the first German upstart specializing in medical tourism. Medigo and Caremondo also offer similar services. The latter, however, filed for bankruptcy in 2016 and was sold to Singapore investors.
Qunomedical’s investors include Project A, a Berlin-based venture capitalist and the California-based venture fund 500 Startups, as well as a family-controlled investment group that doesn’t want to be named. The healthcare startup collected €2.5 million ($2.9 million) in its latest round of financing.
Ms. Chung aims to create a fairer healthcare system. “Many people have to wait forever for medical appointments or can’t afford certain procedures at all. That shouldn’t be normal,” said the 34-year-old daughter of Cambodian refugees.
Coming from a family of doctors, Ms. Chung always knew she would become one. She joined the New York-based medical appointment startup ZocDoc in 2015 and became a close associate of the founder and CEO Oliver Kharraz. Later, she thought of setting up something similar in Germany but medical tourism grabbed her interest.
Qunomedical’s first months weren’t that easy. Germany’s healthcare system isn’t the most innovation-friendly, and Ms. Chung learned the hard way. “We had to jump through so many hoops until health insurers took us seriously,” Chung recalled.
Tags: medical tourism, online