Alberto Porciani CEO, TOP DOCTORS
How did Top Doctors emerge into the healthcare scene?
My wife and I are the founders of Top Doctors. We both have a pharmaceutical background. We realized that patients had trouble finding the right doctor for their symptoms or condition, set about building the best virtual hospital in the world, which today has become Top Doctors. At the beginning of 2013, we discovered a company founded 25 years ago that was engaged in a similar business activity: Castle Connolly Americas’ Top Doctors. Indeed, they are the leaders in the selection of specialists, but through published books and magazines across the US. We contacted them to explain that we wanted to do something similar, but in Europe and Latin America, and proposed a collaboration. One month after the initial call they visited us in Barcelona and soon after we were invited to visit them in New York in January 2013. They then decided to invest in the first seed capital to the tune of USD500,000. At that time, we had about 60 doctors on our platform, and at present, we have more than 24,000.
What led you to decide on expansion into other countries in Latin America?
Once you understand our mission, which is to build the best virtual clinic in the world, it becomes clear why we want to have a presence in all countries. To date, we are present in seven markets: Italy, Spain, the UK, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. Our latest expansion was Saudi Arabia in 2019.
Beyond bringing top doctors together, what services do members receive?
In Barcelona, we are lucky when it comes to healthcare because we have great facilities, top hospitals, and excellent doctors. However, in other countries, there is sometimes a lack of specialists, management services, and facilities. That is the reason why we have different platforms to help doctors manage communication with patients and for patients to connect with the right doctor. These include an online booking platform to manage face-to-face visits, remote consultations using our telemedicine feature, as well as a service to manage prescriptions.
What is your business model?
We are a SaaS company that sells technology to doctors. Patients, on the other hand, can use our services for free. First, we help them to identify the right doctors for their needs through our platform. After this, patients can book an appointment online and select a slot without having to call the clinic. Additionally, patients can connect with their chosen doctor through our telemedicine feature, either by private chat or video conference. In short, our platform provides patients with 360-degree healthcare management. The benefit for doctors is that we help them leverage digitalization. For instance, we offer an online booking system that reduces no-shows and better manages their agenda, a platform for communication and seeking patients reviews, a telemedicine feature that doesn’t require faceto-face visits for follow-ups, and a prepayment system to help them collect money more easily from patients. There’s also a platform to prescribe medications online.