Meet the startup that’s addressing the Philippines’ healthcare woes

When Dr. Dexter Galban was in nursing and medical school, he witnessed the gaps in the Philippines’ healthcare system firsthand.

“I kept seeing these long lines of patients outside hospitals as early as four in the morning just hoping for a chance to be seen by a health professional,” he says. “From the time I started training to the time I ended, not much has changed.”

Dr Dexter Galban (left) with COO Dr Via Roderos / Photo credit: Alaga Health

What Galban saw was just one example of the many struggles the Philippines faces with healthcare.

The nation’s challenges with its health sector have been well-documented. An oft-cited and somewhat damning statistic is that six in 10 Filipinos die without ever seeing a health professional. The country faces a significant shortage of doctors and nurses and has a very fragmented healthcare system as well.

In Galban’s view, many Filipinos aren’t aware of what to do or where to go when they need medical treatment, even for minor issues, and often end up at the hospital.

“In the context of the Philippines, there is a tendency to immediately gravitate toward the hospital that really ends up clogging up our health system,” he explains. “Often, there are health providers or clinics within the vicinity of their homes or their workplaces that they don’t know about.”

Healthcare in the Philippines is also highly privatized, and 55% of healthcare spending in the nation comes out of pocket, which takes a serious financial toll on its citizens.

And of course, all these problems have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, as quarantine measures negatively affected access to health services and strained existing resources.

Building Alaga

Driven by these observations, Galban co-founded Alaga Health in 2020. The firm, a universal health marketplace and health services aggregator, aims to bring together all aspects of healthcare onto its platform, ranging from telehealth services, laboratory tests, to home care. It also offers healthcare education.

“In a time where you can easily order food or grab your clothes through your mobile applications, it’s necessary for healthcare to be even more accessible,” he says.

Alaga, which is the Filipino word for care, came about through a serendipitous meeting between Galban and his co-founder, Von Payumo, at an event called Impact Hackathon, where the former was invited as a judge.

Galban is a commissioner at the commission on population and development at the Philippines’ National Economic and Development Authority and serves as a consultant for the Asian Development Bank.

“I was vouching for [Payuomo’s team] because they were one of the few groups that were trying to push something for healthcare,” says Galban. He also told them to reach out to him if they needed some guidance or assistance.

Develop and grow

A bumpy road

The road ahead