Serene Cai is the co-founder of Speedoc, one of the region's leading digital health startups specializing in decentralized care and home-based medical care.

In 2020, Speedoc raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Vertex Ventures; and in 2022, it raised a further $28 million in a Pre-Series B funding to expand its virtual home care programme.

During the pandemic, Speedoc was a key member in Singapore’s COVID-19 response providing medical attention to the foreign worker dormitories, performing more than 25,000 swabs, helping more than 18,000 seafarers be certified fit to fly home when global shipping lanes came to a standstill, and administering COVID-19 jabs to the housebound.

As part of the efforts to uplift the healthcare landscape, Serene also worked with government and hospital partners to create virtual hospitals in Singapore. Speedoc has since discharged more than 7,000 patients successfully from its virtual ward programme.

‍

👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

In a nutshell, my role involves overseeing the strategic thrusts that enable us to connect individuals with healthcare professionals and major hospitals. Our team provides video consultations and home-based visits, ensuring patients and caregivers can easily access medical services when needed. But that's not all – we also collaborate with major hospitals to enable patients who require closer monitoring, yet not necessitating a hospital stay, to recover comfortably at home.

In essence, I oversee a blend of digital consultations, in-home care, and hospital collaboration to make healthcare accessible, and tailored to individual needs, providing added convenience to patients.

‍

🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

There are so many non-healthcare related job functions that go into ensuring that our patients get the best care!

‍

🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

One of the highlights of my career has to be the phase when we navigated through the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak. We provided medical care amid many uncertainties and continuously supported frontline staff attending to affected individuals. As their leader, the physical and mental well-being of our patients and staff is most important to me. Managing the team's fears during this uncertain time was crucial.

Despite the challenges, we facilitated mass swabs onsite, provided healthcare to dormitory workers, and oversaw pre-event testing for many beautiful weddings. Besides administering swabs at these joyous occasions, we were honoured to become a pillar of support for their crucial life events.

‍

🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

I have been looking out for purposeful healthtech innovations that can enable or support predictive monitoring and analytics in healthcare. If there’s one thing the pandemic has done, it has spurred the rapid adoption of digital health solutions.

There is now greater demand and emphasis in telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, and health informatics that aims to enhance proactive healthcare management amongst patients. I’m also looking forward to seeing the use of AI in healthcare and what that looks like in the next 3-5 years.

‍

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

I would advise individuals to never be afraid to innovate and question the perceived norm.

In the healthcare industry, innovation is often the catalyst for positive change. Don't be afraid to challenge the status quo, propose new ideas, or advocate for advancements. Whether it's adopting cutting-edge technologies or pushing for more patient-centric approaches, fear of the unknown should never stifle your willingness to innovate.

Always aim to continuously progress step by step, and remember that transformative breakthroughs often arise from the willingness to step beyond the familiar. Finally, always remember to build yourself a good support system.

‍

‍🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

I’m a paw-rent, and you wouldn’t believe the number of stories and experiences I have to share about my (male) Japanese Spitz, Meow.

‍

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?

The Big Bang Theory.

‍

🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

I’m not sure if they still carry it, but Very Berry by Island Creamery is my absolute favourite.

‍

FYI. We've edited this interview for clarity.