Policy Reinforcement and Demand Upgrade: Forum on Digital Transformation-Driven High-Quality Hospital Development Highlights Industry Insights and Innovative Solutions

In 2022, a year fraught with uncertainty, the hospital’s information center not only fulfilled its daily operational duties but also shouldered the responsibility of implementing epidemic prevention and control measures while weathering the surge in patient visits during peak pandemic periods. After repeatedly pushing the limits of work intensity and operational resilience, the team successfully ushered in 2023.

At the “Forum on High-Quality Hospital Development Driven by Digital Transformation,” hosted by HC3i Digital Healthcare Network on January 7, leaders, experts, and technology pioneers from the field of healthcare informatics shared their insights and reflections on industry development. They discussed both the hot-button issues capturing their attention and the challenges they have encountered. Participants spoke freely, describing how they are writing a new chapter in hospital digital transformation against the backdrop of high-quality hospital development in an era marked by constant change and great anticipation.

As a member of the healthcare IT industry, HC3i has maintained close ties with active users across all sectors—government, industry, academia, research, investment, management, and end-users—for the past 13 years. By listening to the practical insights and perspectives of peers from various fields, we accurately grasp the evolving needs of our users. Leveraging the dissemination advantages of internet platforms, we deliver leading policy trends, experiential insights, and product solutions to everyone in need within the industry. We aim to break down information silos and knowledge barriers, ensuring that healthcare IT professionals from all corners of the country have the opportunity to keep pace with the development of healthcare informatization.

Zhang Xiuli, General Manager of HC3i Digital Healthcare Network

Bao Guofeng, Deputy Director of the Information and Network Office, Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University

The meeting was co-chaired by Zhang Xiuli, General Manager of HC3i Digital Healthcare Network, and Bao Guofeng, Deputy Director of the Information and Network Office at Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University.

Deputy Director of the Statistical Information Center, National Health Commission Zhou Gongwei

Digital Transformation Drives High-Quality Hospital Development: A Highly Significant ThemeIn the era of the digital economy, developing digital health has become a key engine for building a new development pattern in the healthcare sector and promoting its high-quality growth. To advance digital transformation, it is essential to firmly grasp the political, economic, social, and cyberspace value orientations of digital health. By achieving innovative integration and development through “digital + health” that aligns “technology + demand,” we can facilitate the flow of data resource elements and reconstruct management and service models. This will optimize management structures and enhance service efficiency, holding significant practical importance for reshaping new models of healthcare management and services.

Today, the digitalization of healthcare has entered a new phase of rapid development. Digital technologies are playing a significant role in advancing clinical specialties, promoting medical technology research, and innovating service models, thereby providing more robust and powerful support for hospital operations management as well as teaching and research knowledge infrastructure.

However, the digital transformation of healthcare still faces numerous challenges. Significant gaps remain in achieving high standards, whether in top-level design, digital literacy, data governance, or data security. Medical informatics professionals must continue to strive diligently, forging ahead with relentless pursuit of excellence.

Tang Yonglin, Director of the Big Data Office, Department of Planning Development and Informatization, National Health Commission

At the 14th meeting of the Central Commission for Comprehensive Deepening Reforms, General Secretary Xi Jinping specifically emphasized the need to attach great importance to the application of next-generation information technology in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, so as to reshape management and service models, optimize resource allocation, and enhance service efficiency. It is precisely around this objective that we are advancing our national health informatization initiatives during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

The fundamental principles we must adhere to are: Upholding integrated and intensive development, co-construction and sharing, guided by large-scale platforms, systems, and catalogs, to accelerate the coordinated advancement of informatization; Adhering to service orientation and business-driven approaches; Promoting openness, integration, and innovative development, building a data-driven ecosystem, advancing the integration of technology, data, and business operations, and innovating data supply mechanisms; Ensuring standardization, orderliness, security, and controllability, placing equal emphasis on development and security, and incorporating security governance throughout the entire process of construction, management, and application of national health informatization.

In the future, we will strengthen intensive development and strive to provide new technologies—such as informatization, artificial intelligence, and big data—to medical institutions as public infrastructure, akin to water, electricity, coal, and gas. To ensure these plans are effectively implemented and yield tangible results, concerted efforts across the entire industry are required to support the Healthy China initiative and enhance the public’s sense of gain.

Director of the Beijing Health Big Data and Policy Research Center, Ju Wensheng

The promotion of credit-based medical services aligns with the trend of social development and yields significant social benefits. It not only contributes to the construction of a social credit system and fosters societal integrity, but also enhances patients’ healthcare experience by reducing waiting times, optimizing hospital service workflows, and creating new development opportunities for the integrated innovation of internet, credit, financial, and insurance sectors within the healthcare industry.

Therefore, as the social credit system in various regions continues to improve, an increasing number of regional medical institutions have launched credit-based medical services in recent years. Shanghai, Zhejiang, Xiamen, Zhucheng, Beijing, and other areas took the lead in piloting credit-based medical services. Beijing proposed the “Credit + Insurance” model to achieve “treatment first, payment later,” while Nanjing, Dalian, Zhuhai, Nanchang, Kunming, and other regions have also successively implemented “credit-based medical services.”

According to surveys, operational models for credit-based medical services include urban public credit platforms, banks, insurance companies, and Alipay. Among institutions implementing credit-based medical services, nearly half enable patients to save more than 30 minutes in consultation time. Credit limits vary among the hospitals surveyed; outpatient and emergency credit limits are mostly RMB 0–1,000, while inpatient credit limits are mostly RMB 2,000–5,000. Compared with the average cost per outpatient visit reported in the “2020 Statistical Bulletin on the Development of China’s Health Undertakings,” the credit limits currently set for credit-based medical services in some regions appear relatively reasonable.

Yang Wenfei, Vice President of 51CTO

The State Council’s “14th Five-Year Plan for Digital Economy Development” points out that the digital economy is the main economic form following the agricultural and industrial economies. According to Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law, innovation and scale are the two major characteristics of enterprise development in the era of the digital economy. Experience from digital transformation in other industries shows that traditional financial institutions were initially under increasing pressure from internet finance, but they quickly launched a counteroffensive. Nearly all large commercial banks and joint-stock commercial banks established their own fintech subsidiaries, adopting innovation models and talent structures similar to those of internet technology companies, and fully embracing innovative technologies. The healthcare industry is no exception. Traditional public hospitals have begun developing internet healthcare services and establishing internet hospitals to serve patients. Tracking digital transformation across various industries reveals that traditional enterprises and public institutions have consistently encountered talent challenges during their transition; as these industries emerged from scratch, it was virtually impossible to recruit experienced talent from outside. Therefore, enterprises and public institutions, including those in the healthcare sector, must prioritize the cultivation of digital talent and introduce mature digital talent development models. Only in this way can their existing workforce keep pace with digital transformation and support the forward momentum of emerging digital businesses.

Xu Shengwang, General Manager (Founder) of Shenzhen Shucun Technology Co., Ltd.

The level of continuous service capability has always been a key indicator for information infrastructure construction and an important support for various production and business activities. How to ensure the continuous and stable operation of hospital information systems and safeguard uninterrupted hospital operations is the primary concern of IT management personnel. In this regard, we propose the following recommendations:

First, it is essential to take a holistic approach to the construction of the entire disaster recovery system and implement comprehensive management. Preparations should be made across multiple dimensions, including risk analysis, disaster recovery design, disaster recovery planning, and disaster recovery simulation drills and validation, to ensure rapid business restoration in the event of a disaster.

Secondly, the construction of a disaster recovery system must be forward-looking, leaving room for the hospital's continuous development and designed according to high standards of informatization;

Furthermore, the disaster recovery system needs to effectively utilize standby computing resources by concentrating limited standby computing power on critical business systems during a disaster. This approach ensures higher takeover performance while reducing upfront hardware investment.

Finally, disaster recovery management and operations are critical. It is essential to regularly execute disaster recovery drill plans to ensure rapid business restoration in the event of a disaster. It is recommended to conduct at least two disaster recovery drills per year and perform at least one comprehensive inspection each month.

This round of discussion was moderated by Liang Zhigang, Director of the Information Center at Xuanwu Hospital (large image). The participating guests included: Huang Hong, Director of the Information Center at Huashan Hospital (top left); Wang Lihua, Director of the Information Center at Beijing Friendship Hospital (top right); and Bao Yurong, Director of the Department of Quality Management and Telemedicine at the Second Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital (bottom right). The guests discussed how hospital information centers navigated the challenges of 2022, including breaking through pandemic lockdowns, meeting upgraded demands for patient service quality, managing new campus construction and integrated coordination, addressing the surge in policy-related regulatory data requirements, handling frequent urgent system development needs, and coping with the influx of COVID-19 patients caused by outbreaks. They bid farewell to 2022, a year of continuous self-breakthroughs, and jointly welcomed the renewal and revitalization of 2023.

This session was moderated by Heng Fanxiu, Director of the Information Department at Peking University Cancer Hospital (large image). The participating guests included: Tian Zongmei, Director of the Information Center at Beijing Shijitan Hospital (top right); Zhao Qianqian, Deputy Director of the Information Center at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital (top left); and Lu Jian, Director of the Information Center at Yunnan Cancer Hospital (bottom left). On the path to high-quality hospital development, challenges in informatization have emerged one after another, including frequent patient complaints, planning lagging behind policy changes, difficulties in meeting smart management standards, and a lack of algorithm engineers to support scientific research. Talent, disciplines, and informatization are the three driving forces of high-quality development. Only by strengthening talent cultivation and introducing advanced technologies can hospitals forge ahead in the wave of high-quality development.

To further assist technology companies in demonstrating their empowerment capabilities and help the healthcare industry uncover more outstanding solutions, the “2022 Smart New Medical Information Excellent Solutions” were released concurrently. This initiative selects high-quality solutions for healthcare institutions from two major dimensions: precise empowerment of application scenarios and comprehensive support for business operations, garnering widespread attention.

The excellent solutions are hereby published as follows: