Wang Hang of Haodf Online: The Internet Healthcare Industry Is on the Verge of Major Growth
On March 24, 2023, the Yinchuan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Yinchuan Municipal People’s Government convened the “Citywide Conference on Promoting High-Quality Development of the Private Economy and Enhancing the Business Service Environment.” In recognition of Haodf Online’s outstanding contributions to the development of “Internet + Healthcare” in Yinchuan, Wang Hang, Founder and CEO of Haodf Online, was awarded the honorary title of “Outstanding Private Entrepreneur of Yinchuan City.”
Wang Hang, Founder and CEO of Haodf.com, Honored with the Title of “Outstanding Private Entrepreneur in Yinchuan City”
In China, high-quality medical resources are generally in short supply and unevenly distributed, with the issue being particularly pronounced in the western regions. How to introduce high-quality medical resources from the eastern regions into the west to address local healthcare challenges has always been a key concern for the Yinchuan Municipal People’s Government.
In December 2016, the Yinchuan Municipal People’s Government partnered with Haodf Online to jointly establish the Yinchuan Haodf Internet Hospital (initially named the Yinchuan Smart Internet Hospital). As China’s first legally sanctioned pilot internet hospital, it garnered widespread attention across the country from its inception. This milestone event also marked the beginning of a series of innovations in internet-based healthcare by Yinchuan City.
HaoDaiFu Online’s flagship initiative in Yinchuan is the “Yinchuan National-Level Expert Telemedicine Center,” jointly established with the First People’s Hospital of Yinchuan (initially known as the Remote Expert Outpatient Clinic). Its core service enables patients to promptly receive authoritative diagnoses and treatment plans from national-level experts based in Beijing and Shanghai, with implementation carried out by the medical team at the First People’s Hospital of Yinchuan. As treatment is provided locally in Yinchuan, patients can benefit from local medical insurance reimbursement policies, avoid the burdens of travel and accommodation, and have family members readily available for care. Without needing to travel to Beijing or Shanghai, residents of Yinchuan can access diagnostic and therapeutic services from national-level experts, thereby enjoying China’s highest-quality medical resources.
To date, the National Expert Telemedicine Center in Yinchuan has engaged 898 national-level experts from Beijing, Shanghai, and other regions to provide diagnostic and treatment plans for patients in Ningxia. The center has served 3,139 patient visits, primarily focusing on complex and critical cases, and has saved numerous lives. Haodf.com’s innovative initiatives have delivered tangible convenience and benefits to the residents of Yinchuan and the broader Ningxia region.
Experts from Yinchuan First People's Hospital and patients jointly consulted with senior specialists via the Yinchuan National-Level Expert Telemedicine Center.
By leveraging national-level expert resources via the internet to address complex and critical medical cases in western China, Haodf Online’s pioneering “Internet + Healthcare” service model has garnered high praise from industry experts and leaders at all levels. In 2018, then-Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang and Vice Premier Sun Chunlan separately visited Yinchuan First People’s Hospital to review its innovative achievements, expressing full recognition and directing the establishment of the first “Internet + Healthcare” demonstration zone in Ningxia. This zone was tasked with serving as a “testing ground” to set an example for the rest of the country.
As the “testing ground” of the demonstration zone, how does Yinchuan attract industrial clustering? Given that medical innovation is closely tied to life safety, how can risks be prevented and controlled? How can innovative enterprises collaborate with regulatory innovations? And how can a safe and secure environment be created for industrial development? With no prior experience to draw upon, Yinchuan has had to “cross the river by feeling the stones.” In this process, Haodf Online has once again made outstanding contributions.
In October 2018, under the guidance of the Yinchuan Municipal Health Commission, Haodf Online, as a founding entity, joined forces with multiple internet healthcare companies to establish China’s first internet healthcare industry association—the Yinchuan Internet + Medical Health Association. The association has pursued industry self-regulation by issuing three industry initiatives, three industry codes of conduct, and four operational standards, thereby laying a solid foundation for reducing medical risks across the sector. Meanwhile, it has facilitated government-enterprise dialogue and provided corporate services, promoting the establishment of internet healthcare enterprises throughout China in Yinchuan. To date, Yinchuan City has attracted and gathered 145 “Internet + Medical Health” companies, with cumulative turnover reaching RMB 2.2 billion in recent years.
After more than six years of development, Yinchuan has taken a leading role across China in multiple areas—including model innovation, business oversight, tax policies, and the business environment—within the internet healthcare industry, making significant contributions to the formulation of national-level industry policies. With the introduction in 2022 of two major policy documents, the Detailed Rules for the Supervision and Administration of Internet-Based Diagnosis and Treatment (Trial) and the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Drug Sales, the internet healthcare sector has entered a phase of standardized, high-quality development, signaling the imminent arrival of a stage characterized by large-scale expansion.
On March 18, 2023, the inaugural Yinchuan Summit on Digital Medical Health, themed “Originating in Yinchuan, Co-creating the Future,” was held. Twenty-four leaders, academicians, and experts from relevant national ministries and commissions as well as the digital medical health sector, along with heads of 136 digital medical health enterprises, gathered in Yinchuan to discuss digital medicine and explore new pathways and innovative approaches for high-quality development in digital medical health. At the summit, more than 40 cooperative projects were signed and launched, injecting new momentum into Yinchuan’s digital medical industry and underscoring its status as a genuine hub for the digital medical industry in China.
Standing at a new starting point, Wang Hang, President of the Yinchuan Internet + Medical Health Association, expressed strong confidence in the industry’s future. “Yinchuan has always been a highland for policy innovation in ‘Internet + Medical Health’ in China and is poised to become a premier hub for the digital health industry. We will continue to put down deep roots in this fertile ground of Yinchuan, fully leverage the innovative advantages of private enterprises, and work with our peers to further promote the expansion and downward distribution of high-quality medical resources. While enhancing public well-being, we will firmly seize development opportunities in the medical health sector and jointly welcome the advent of an era of explosive industry growth,” said Wang Hang.