Here’s Medicto, a newly launched app that can be a lifesaver to all foreigners living in Korea. Developed by 10LOCO CEO Yoon Jong-cheon.
Living in a foreign land is really hard especially when you don’t speak and understand their language especially in the information services fields. Another thing is every year, the population of foreign students, workers, and multicultural are increasing. But the information services provided are very low compared to the numbers of foreigners living and staying in Korea.
Honestly, I’m living here in Korea for 5 years already but I’m still having a hard time especially when going to the hospital and buying some medicines in the pharmacy.
Luckily, I found a lifesaver app which is Medicto.
Medicto: Foreigners Lifesaver App by 10LOCO
What is Medicto?
Medicto was launched last October 26, 2020, by 10LOCO. According to CEO Yoon Jong-cheon, he ended up developing the app based on his personal experiences when he was an American student. Another reason is when he married her wife who’s an American. He wanted her to experience and familiarize the services from local pharmacies and hospitals. But because her wife is a foreigner there are difficulties and limitations when it comes to medical information. In addition, he also said that some foreigners can get the wrong prescription due to miscommunication which actually happened to her wife. So based on those experiences he thought of making a solution to the problem.
Medicto has four languages in the app like English, Korean, French ad Chinese. It uses a pictogram where you can easily select your symptoms like cold, hangover, stomachache, and skin disease. It also includes women health where user can able to communicate to the doctor/pharmacists whenever she needs a pregnancy test, birth control pills, or morning pills.
What are the services provided by Medicto?
1. Summarizes the conversation between the patient and the doctor nor pharmacist
Medicto is not just only a translator app but it also provides an integrated solution for medical services problems to foreigners living here in Korea. By using this app you can easily tell the doctor or pharmacy what you really need. For example, you are having colds and you don’t know how to tell the doctor. You can use the Medicto app by selecting the language that suits you and your symptoms. Then you can show it to the doctor and will give you your right medication and thats it. It’s the same when you need over the counter medicines too.
2. It allows you to search for clinics/pharmacies where a foreign language is available
Aside from that, Medicto also allows the user to search for clinics/hospitals or pharmacies where a foreign language is available. Isn’t that good? This app helps us a lot especially when our knowledge of Korean is limited. Also when we are having difficulties communicating especially about medical services. Receiving the wrong medication due to misunderstanding is not good for someone’s health so we better be careful.
Medicto offers these services for now but they plan to expand the usage of the app into different foreign fields like hospital reservations when the user needs treatment. Aside from reservations, they’re planning to add the services which can help foreigners to claim their insurances for treatment.
CEO Yoo said that their aim is to develop a one-stop medical integrated solution. This can help foreigners in Korea when it comes to medical services.
PS. If you find some errors while using the app 10LOCO team is updating Medicto to provide better services to its users.
Isn’t this a big help for us foreigners living here in Korea? Give me your thoughts!
Xoxo, Hyejin
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May De Jesus-Palacpac says
Wow, this is absolutely fantastic! It is difficult to communicate your symptoms when in a foreign land, especially when they speak a different language other than English. This is very good!
Nicole San Miguel says
This app is very helpful! It acts as a translator and allows you to search for pharmacies din. Sa Korea lang ba sya available?
Rowena says
This is a great and useful app for travelers in Korea. This app will bypass language barrier that can greatly affect either the physician diagnosis or the medicine that the pharmacist will give their foreign patient.
Christianforemost.com says
What an innovation we all need!!! I’d always thought of migrating to another country, but i haven’t thought of encounting problems like this. Good thing there’s a solution already.
Pinaynursemeetsworld says
Communication is very important between people especially on health care. Clear communication can save lives, it’s very valuable to be able to communicate what we truly feel so our doctors and nurses will get a better understanding of our needs thus, preventing misdiagnosing and medical errors.
Jowell (@FLINGeros.PH | @FoodFlings.PH) says
I super understand your dilemma since I also experienced this while in Japan. I sure hope that we had this back then. This is so helpful for all our kababayans in Korea!
Nicole P. says
This is really nice for you guys living in korea! I think very few clinics here in the PH have this service- even then it is not in an app like medicto which is sad. Having a central app like this, where you can talk and do consultations even at home during this time would have been a really advantageous thing here too… but … hay. well, you know how it is in the PH. 🙂
Hazel says
This is a super useful app! I’m glad it was developed by someone because they personally experienced the struggle of this situation. Indeed, getting the wrong medical attention because of language barrier or misunderstanding is not good for someone’s health.
Hazel says
This is a super useful app! I’m glad it was developed by someone because they personally experienced the struggle of this situation. Indeed, getting the wrong medical attention because of language barrier or misunderstanding is not good for someone’s health.
WanderWoMom says
this is a very useful app that we can use. at first i thought already that it is something related to the medical field because of the name, then i read na translate, so ahh baka pang translate ng Korean language to another. yun pala pang medical field talaga. ang galing. naalala ko tuloy when my son got sick nun nasa hongkong kami nahirapan din ako mag sabi sa watsons dun kung ano kailangan ko. kudos to this!
ann says
I hope meron din yan dito sa Japan, it is so hard to read Japanese characters! It is so thoughtful naman ng developer to think of that for her wife to cope living in Korea!
Blair villanueva says
Wow this is a good news for many foreign travellers in Korea. Malaking tulong ito lalo na health-wise.
Hyun Jang Nim says
Wow this is very helpful. I experienced this problem when I was in Dubai wherein the language is Arabic and some are not that well spoken in English. This will help our kabayan in Korea.