WeDoctor's Innovative Digital Healthcare Model Gains Traction Amid National 'Healthy China' Push; Files New IPO Prospectus
The Construction of Healthy China Enters an Acceleration Phase, with Digital Healthcare Poised to Play a Major Role. Recently, the Office of the Steering Committee for the Healthy China Initiative issued the Key Points of the Healthy China Initiative in 2023, which covers 52 specific measures across four areas: improving and perfecting operational mechanisms, formulating and issuing policy documents, solidly advancing key tasks, and organizing and conducting distinctive activities.
In the 2023 "Government Work Reports" released by provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across China, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Shaanxi, and other regions have all specified key tasks for accelerating the development of Healthy Cities. Tianjin has proposed promoting the "Internet + Healthcare" model and deeply implementing initiatives such as health improvement for key populations and prevention and control of chronic diseases. Shandong has proposed building demonstration cities for "Internet + Healthcare," promoting the integrated development of online follow-up consultations, medical insurance payments, and pharmaceutical distribution. Beijing, Jilin, Guizhou, and other regions have also made special arrangements for "Internet + Healthcare" and the construction of internet hospitals.
Since the release of the “Outline of the ‘Healthy China 2030’ Plan” in 2016, pioneering provinces and municipalities have explored implementable new models of digital health through innovative practices, creating distinctive prototypes of healthy cities. Notably, regions such as Tianjin and Shandong, leveraging their local healthcare realities and capitalizing on the digital hospital technologies and comprehensive service advantages of platforms like WeDoctor, have developed representative and instructive initiatives such as Digital Health Communities and Internet-based Integrated Health Platforms.
In January 2020, as a major initiative by the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government to advance the “Healthy Tianjin Action,” the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government signed the “Strategic Cooperation Agreement on Digital Health” with WeDoctor Group, launching the construction of the “Digital Health Consortium.” This initiative is health-centered and leverages digitalization to integrate healthcare, medical insurance, and pharmaceutical services. Under the leadership of the Tianjin Municipal Health Commission, with Tianjin WeDoctor General Hospital (Tianjin WeDoctor Internet Hospital) serving as the lead entity, a close-knit internet-based medical consortium was jointly established with 266 primary healthcare institutions across the city, forming the Tianjin Primary Care Digital Health Consortium. This consortium provides Tianjin residents with integrated online-and-offline medical and health services encompassing prevention, diagnosis, treatment, management, and wellness.
After three years of development and operation, the Tianjin Primary Care Digital Health Consortium has achieved significant results. As of the end of December 2022, the consortium had signed chronic disease management cooperation agreements with 204 primary healthcare institutions and seven secondary hospitals, and was progressively co-establishing chronic disease management centers. It has established health records for over 1.68 million patients, and more than 110,000 diabetic patients have been enrolled and incorporated into the health stewardship responsibility system for outpatient special care services for diabetes. Among these, the standardized management rate for diabetic patients in pilot primary healthcare institutions reached 81.5%, and the blood glucose control rate improved by more than 12.1%.
The tangible outcomes demonstrated by the data indicate that Tianjin’s Primary Digital Health Consortium has taken a significant step forward in implementing value-based healthcare. Its specific measures include using chronic disease management as an entry point and leveraging digital tools to truly integrate medical care, health insurance data, and services across primary and tertiary healthcare institutions. This integration facilitates the decentralization of high-quality medical resources and the implementation of tiered diagnosis and treatment. Furthermore, by establishing effective management and performance mechanisms centered on “health-oriented care,” the consortium has explored innovative reforms in health insurance payment methods, such as capitation and diagnosis-related group (DRG) bundled payments. These efforts have successfully realized “payment for performance” in medical services, genuinely enhancing the operational efficiency and level of “tri-medical linkage” (coordination among medical care, health insurance, and pharmaceuticals). Owing to these numerous innovative achievements, Tianjin’s Primary Digital Health Consortium was featured in the 2023 China New Social Governance Think Tank Report—*Digital Transformation and Governance Reform*.
Digital Health Communities have significantly enhanced the public’s sense of health security and well-being. By providing convenient, integrated online-to-offline medical and health services, these communities have realized “accessible doorstep medical care and comprehensive health management” at the grassroots level. Han Qide, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out during his investigation into Tianjin’s grassroots Digital Health Communities that Tianjin’s practice focuses on addressing the critical needs of primary healthcare and disadvantaged populations, balancing efficiency with equity, and setting a benchmark for healthcare system reform. At the 2021 National Conference on Promoting Experience in Deepening Healthcare Reform, Tianjin’s Grassroots Digital Health Community was selected as one of the “Top Ten New Initiatives to Advance Healthcare Reform and Serve Public Health.” In April 2022, five central ministries and commissions, including the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the National Development and Reform Commission, jointly issued a document explicitly proposing to “guide localities in exploring the development of grassroots Digital Health Communities.”
Shandong is also one of the earliest provinces to explore the Digital Health Community model. In September 2019, the Tai’an Municipal Government entered into a strategic partnership with WeDoctor to jointly establish the Tai’an Digital Health Community and China’s first Internet Hospital for Chronic Diseases. Leveraging this Internet Hospital, which integrates medical insurance payment capabilities, dedicated chronic disease management zones—known as Chronic Disease Service Centers—were established within member hospitals of the Chronic Disease Internet Medical Consortium. This initiative enabled end-to-end services combining “in-hospital and out-of-hospital” as well as “online and offline” approaches for chronic disease diagnosis and treatment, health management, and medical insurance reimbursement. As a result, the consultation time for chronic disease patients was reduced from the previous 2–3 hours to just 20–30 minutes, and outpatient pressure on hospitals was alleviated by more than 20%. The “Tai’an Experience” has received high recognition from both the government and the industry, leading to its comprehensive promotion across all 16 prefecture-level cities in Shandong Province.
Given its large population base and significant pressure from an aging demographic, Shandong has been exploring multi-tiered integration of medical and health services in the process of advancing the “Healthy Shandong” initiative. In April 2020, Shandong launched its first open comprehensive service platform characterized by “government support, state-controlled ownership, integration of advantageous resources, and market-oriented operations”—the Shandong Internet Big Health Platform. Co-developed and operated by WeDoctor, the platform provides assisted and agency services—including follow-up consultations and prescription issuance, medical insurance payment, home delivery of medications, and in-home nursing care—to elderly individuals, those with partial or total disability, and patients with chronic diseases across the province.
Today, residents of Shandong can access services such as online follow-up consultations and prescription refills, online medical insurance settlement, and home delivery of medications through channels like the “Shandong Internet + Great Health” WeChat service account. They can also enjoy online appointment registration, scheduled in-home nursing care, online enrollment in inclusive health insurance (with payment enabled via personal medical insurance accounts), and health management services. According to statistics, as of December 31, 2022, the platform had established more than 40 chronic disease management service centers in cities including Jinan, Tai’an, Weifang, and Dezhou, cumulatively serving over 4.5 million individuals with chronic conditions.
To activate the “capillaries” of grassroots healthcare, the service platform also deploys digital health service vehicles to reach remote rural areas. By integrating these efforts with contracted public health services provided by family doctors, it delivers health services such as public health examinations, chronic disease screening, and management to residents at the grassroots level, significantly improving the efficiency with which medical insurance and healthcare resources are decentralized to benefit the public.
By reviewing provincial and municipal experiences with successful models of Healthy City development, digital hospitals embodying the principle of “integrating medical care, health insurance, and pharmaceutical services; strengthening primary care; and safeguarding public health” have become an essential new digital-intelligence “lever.” Meanwhile, the Digital Health Community (DHC) / Close-knit Internet Medical Consortium, led and operated by these digital hospitals, serves as the foundational service network. Notably, digital hospitals established by platforms such as WeDoctor are neither simple internet hospitals nor mere digital transformations of traditional hospitals. An analysis reveals that their innovative organizational model, which combines “internet hospitals with physical hospitals,” exhibits the following characteristics:
First, digital hospitals must establish internet hospitals anchored in physical hospitals, evolving from “Internet + Healthcare” to “digital-physical integration.” By leveraging the synergistic effects of digital technologies and medical services to generate multiplicative benefits, this approach empowers traditional healthcare services to achieve intelligent upgrades and integrated innovation, shifting from factor-driven to innovation-driven growth, thereby addressing issues such as unequal resource distribution. This constitutes the first step in implementing Digital Health Communities (DHCs). For instance, the development of Tianjin’s grassroots DHC relies on Tianjin Weiyi General Hospital (also known as Tianjin Weiyi Internet Hospital) as the leading entity, while the service functionality of the Shandong Internet Big Health Platform depends on Shandong Internet Big Health General Hospital (including its internet hospital) serving as the core provider for closed-loop services.
Secondly, digital hospitals must possess the capability to coordinate among medical care, health insurance, and pharmaceutical services. This is a fundamental competency for building a Digital Health Community and serves as the foundation for exploring the transition from volume-based to value-based payment models and implementing value-based healthcare. The most critical and challenging aspect lies in breaking through policy barriers and integrating online health insurance coverage. WeDoctor has already achieved breakthroughs in Shanghai, Tianjin, Shandong, and other regions, establishing a closed-loop service system encompassing medical care, pharmaceuticals, and insurance. Recently, the National Healthcare Security Administration provided a clear response to the proposal of “including fees for internet-based remote consultations and diagnoses in the health insurance settlement system,” stating that qualifying “Internet+” medical services provided by designated medical institutions can be covered by health insurance payments. This development will further enhance the digital healthcare service capabilities in regions developing Digital Health Communities.
Finally, digital hospitals must possess deep capabilities for service integration. Given the relatively weak foundation of primary healthcare services in China, coupled with a rapid surge in demand driven by population aging, there is a significant gap between primary care capacity and public health needs. Digital hospitals must leverage innovative integration to fully realize their potential in “strengthening primary care and safeguarding health.” Taking the Shandong Internet Health Platform as an example, through the integration of resource elements and optimization of service processes, it has established a multi-level, diversified “online + offline” integrated service model. This model provides one-stop access to comprehensive medical and health services, effectively meeting the needs of key populations such as the elderly and patients with chronic diseases.
In summary, digital hospitals, which integrate digital platforms with medical service capabilities, have consolidated resources and reengineered processes by promoting the “three-medical linkage” of medical collaboration, pharmaceutical supply assurance, and health insurance settlement. They are poised to become the mainstream innovative entities in healthcare services in the new era. Under the goal of “ensuring universal access to comprehensive, full-lifecycle health services,” platforms such as WeDoctor, which pioneered and continue to build and operate digital hospitals, have generated value that extends beyond the industry sector and will undoubtedly play a significant role on a broader scale.