As digital health companies expand across emerging markets, differences in family decision-making, medicine access, affordability and trust are challenging the idea that healthcare technology can scale through software replication alone.
South Korea’s healthcare technology ambitions are increasingly shaped by a demographic reality: more than one in five people in the country are now aged 65 or older. As the country responds to the demands of a super-aged society, digital health, artificial intelligence and better-connected care systems are becoming central to healthcare policy. In August 2026, the government approved its AI Basic Healthcare Strategy, which aims to extend AI-supported services across public health centres, primary care and emergency healthcare.
Yet deploying technology is only one part of the challenge. Whether digital health tools become useful in everyday life depends on how patients access care, manage medication, make decisions and interact with healthcare providers. These considerations become even more significant when companies attempt to expand across markets with different healthcare systems and social practices.
For Mahmud Haasan, founder of Bangladeshi healthtech company Medz.fit, the distinction between building software for a new market and making it relevant to that market is fundamental.
“Our focus is family healthcare,” Haasan told KoreaTechToday. “That is why I repeatedly use the word culturization, not localization. These are two fundamentally different things.”
Healthcare adoption is shaped by behaviour, not just technology
Localization typically involves translating an application, changing its currency or integrating a local medicine database. Culturization, as Haasan describes it, requires a deeper understanding of how people make healthcare decisions, whom they trust, what they can afford and how medical needs fit into their daily routines.
The difference is particularly visible in medicine purchasing. In some markets, patients buy medicines in individual pieces rather than full strips. In others, family members manage prescriptions and health records for elderly relatives. The role of a neighbourhood pharmacist can also be very different from that of a pharmacy in a more formalised healthcare system.
These are not marginal details for a digital health platform. They influence whether a patient can obtain prescribed medicine, follow a treatment plan or trust the information provided by an application.
Research in Bangladesh illustrates the complexity. A 2023 qualitative study examining medicine purchasing across three drug shops found that affordability, trust in medicine sellers and previous experience influenced purchasing decisions. Some consumers purchased partial quantities or relied on informal arrangements to access medicines. Although the study was limited in scale, it highlights why digital healthcare models cannot assume that patients everywhere interact with pharmacies in the same way.
“If we don’t understand these behaviors, simply translating our software will not make it useful,” Haasan said.
For healthtech companies, this creates a product-design challenge. A platform may have technically sound prescription management or medicine discovery features, but those capabilities will have limited value if they do not reflect local purchasing habits, payment practices and relationships with healthcare providers.
Why family healthcare is becoming a product opportunity
Medz.fit’s focus on family healthcare reflects the role that relatives often play in managing medical needs. Healthcare decisions are not always made by individual patients in isolation. Family members may coordinate appointments, maintain medical records, manage prescriptions and support elderly relatives through long-term treatment.
The company’s Momota product, for example, is designed to organise family health information, including medical records, prescriptions and reports. Its broader platform also covers medicine-related workflows and pharmacy operations.
Haasan sees these capabilities as connected parts of a longer-term healthcare strategy.
“What we can replicate is our underlying technology, product architecture, and philosophy of making healthcare easier to manage. The foundations for organizing family health records, understanding prescriptions, accessing medicine information, and supporting everyday healthcare workflows can be shared across markets.”
This approach has relevance beyond emerging markets. South Korea’s ageing population is increasing the importance of continuity in care, chronic disease management and support for older people. The government’s AI Basic Healthcare Strategy also recognises the need to strengthen primary care and improve access to healthcare services. Technology that helps patients and families manage information between clinical encounters could become an important part of this wider shift, although it must complement, rather than replace, professional medical care.
The challenge is to make such tools accessible to the people who need them, including older users and family members with varying levels of digital literacy.
Scaling the platform means adapting the experience
For Medz.fit, the distinction between reusable technology and locally adapted experiences will shape its international expansion.
“What needs to change is the experience around those foundations: medicine availability and brands, languages, family decision-making patterns, pharmacy practices, affordability, payment behavior, and regulatory requirements,” Haasan said.
Bangladesh remains the company’s foundation, while Southeast Asia is an important area for validation and expansion. Haasan pointed to Indonesia, where approximately 13% of Aayna Khata’s users are based, despite the product originating from the company’s understanding of Bangladesh’s retail environment. He cautioned that this is an encouraging signal, not proof of product-market fit.
The company sees family health information management and medicine-related workflows as important product opportunities, with pharmacy operations providing a practical commercial entry point. Africa, meanwhile, represents a longer-term opportunity that would require country-specific understanding and partnerships.
The strategy reflects a broader reality for healthtech companies entering international markets: a product that works in one country may offer a useful foundation elsewhere, but its commercial and clinical relevance cannot be assumed. Differences in medicine regulation, pharmacy infrastructure, affordability and healthcare access can require substantial changes to the user experience and operating model.
For Korean companies considering expansion into South and Southeast Asia or Africa, this is an important distinction. Advanced technology and strong domestic adoption do not automatically translate into acceptance in markets with different care pathways and consumer behaviour.
The measure of expansion is everyday usefulness
Healthcare technology is often evaluated through its technical capabilities, number of users, markets entered or institutional partnerships. These indicators matter, but they do not necessarily show whether a product has become part of how people manage their health.
The more meaningful test is whether patients and families can use a service naturally, whether it fits existing healthcare practices and whether it addresses a problem they recognise. That requires companies to understand local behaviour before deciding which features to replicate and which to redesign.
Haasan’s view is that international expansion should be measured by the usefulness of a product in people’s everyday lives, rather than the number of countries listed on a company’s website.
“For us, the real measure will be whether a family in another country can use our technology naturally, without having to change the way they live just to accommodate our software. Technology should adapt to human behavior before expecting human behavior to adapt to technology.”
As healthcare systems become more digital, that principle will matter as much as the sophistication of the technology itself. The next phase of healthtech growth will not be determined solely by how quickly platforms can cross borders, but by how effectively they understand the people and healthcare systems they are built to serve.
