Rafael García is Ever Health’s Founder and CEO. Graduated from a Master Degree in Commercial Management, Marketing and Sales at the Autonomous University of Madrid he was first introduced to the health sector in 2006 as Nasermed’s Head of Operations. Since then, he has developed extensive experience working in the medical device industry which eventually led him to the founding of Ever Health in May of 2015. Today, we interview him to learn more about Ever Health project, his thoughts on the digital health sector and the success of his startup in the process of internationalisation.

Good morning Rafael, here at Barcelona Health Hub we are delighted to have Ever Health on board and we are thrilled to interview you today. To start the interview, could you explain Ever Health’s project?

Ever Health is a technological medical company born to satisfy a social demand: easy and immediate access to a medical professional. We wanted to respond to that demand by offering a medical service at an affordable cost. To do this we studied formulas of all kinds and knew that the answer was not in what had been done so far. So we focused on seeking support in technology, whose advances opened up a range of possibilities for us, with state-of-the-art tools to examine patients remotely with the same quality of service as a face-to-face consultation. Today we take care of the health of the whole family through traditional care medicine supported by the latest technologies with a team of professionals, doctors, psychologists and nutritionists, who offer immediate solutions and effective thanks to the use of the most advanced telemedicine. We are able to solve more than 92% of the consultations.

Could you explain what Kidscare and Peoplecare are? Which of these services did you offer first?

We started 5 years ago with our medical service for children, Kidscare, where we wanted to solve the needs that schools found in their day to day regarding the health of their students. This service, today, has made us leaders in the telepediatrics market in children’s schools and schools in Spain, serving more than 40,000 children.

That successful experience is expanded in 2018 to adult healthcare through the Peoplecare service we give through companies, geriatric residences or insurance companies, among others. This service in companies aims to improve the well-being and quality of life of employees in their workplaces, favoring the feeling of belonging to it, work and family reconciliation, and the health of the whole family.

How did you find the expansion from offering one of these services to offering them both?

From the beginning of the project we knew that we could solve health problems at all ages, and after the success of Kidscare we were sure that we could not stay in caring only for children, that with telemedicine we could go much further and offer our services also to educators, to parents, to take a further leap to care for the whole family, that is why Peoplecare was born, to fulfill that first objective that told him at the beginning of the interview to satisfy the demand of all citizens to access a medical professional easily and immediately.

Ever Health has recently internationalised and has started providing its services in Latin America, how have you found the process of internationalisation?

The truth is that we are having a very good reaction. In May 2018, Ever Health Spain arrives in Mexico, opening up to the Latin American market, thanks to the investments of Touska Capital in the parent company. In Mexico we are carrying out projects with large insurance or pharmaceutical companies and we look forward to continuing to grow.

Do you have any advice for other startups looking to expand its provision of services and products to other countries or continents?

It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. That’s why we’d like to encourage entrepreneurs. Everything can be achieved thanks to the desire, effort, perseverance and surrounding you with people who support you both inside and outside of work. One thing I say almost every day to the whole team is that, if it was easy, anyone would. And, without a doubt, Ever Health is a great team!

How did you first become involved and interested in the digital health sector?

We started as a traditional medical services company, with medical recognitions in schools and children’s schools. After several years in the sector, we detected that children could not be healthy just by performing an annual medical examination, or with the presence of a doctor at the center for a couple of hours a week. We started turning our heads to find a way for a doctor to be throughout school hours, and we thought technology could help us. And so it has been. Today we are in more than 200 schools throughout Spain with our Kidscare service.

What do you expect for the future of the sector?

I always say that the future of telemedicine is to disappear to end up becoming one more way to offer health. Telemedicine has become one of the main strategic points of hospitals and insurance companies around the world, also in Spain, where it is a reality that is spreading rapidly. The figures are significant: more than 100 million medical consultations are conducted through telemedicine annually and are estimated to double face-to-face consultations in less than 10 years. The goal of the entire Ever Health group is to make the technological advances that we are experiencing a reality and overcome the barriers that, out of ignorance, patients and doctors may have to achieve democratization of health and that everyone can access to it. Doctors, by vocation, what they want is to give the best possible care and with telemedicine it has been shown that it can be done. We want to make medicine accessible to everyone and from anywhere, from any device.

Thank you very much Rafael, we look forward to collaborating with you and continuing to celebrate Everhealth’s success.

Rafael García, Founder and CEO of Ever Health