Baidu Health Unveils Nationwide Tertiary Hospital Network Covering 60% of Chinese Provinces at National Pharmaceutical Industry Information Annual Conference

The 39th National Pharmaceutical Industry Information Annual Conference was held in Shanghai from the 17th to the 20th. Hosted by the China Pharmaceutical Industry Information Center, the event saw participation from Baidu Health, which joined government leaders, industry experts, and corporate representatives in discussing a sustainable innovation ecosystem for China’s pharmaceutical industry. At this conference, AI empowerment of the big health industry garnered increasing attention. Leveraging Baidu’s leading technologies in AI and big data, Baidu Health has developed a “Precision Doctor-Patient Matching Engine,” which achieves accurate online linking and matching between patients with specialized conditions and specialists at public hospitals. The network of public tertiary hospitals currently established covers 60% of provinces and municipalities across China.

At the National Pharmaceutical Industry Information Conference, Zhang Zongjie, General Manager of Digital Marketing at Baidu’s Health Business Group, stated in his speech that the group operates two major brands: Baidu Health and Lingyi Zhihui. For users, it builds a one-stop health management service platform, enabling patients to access more convenient consultation and popular science services, and to find suitable hospitals and doctors. For doctors and hospitals, it provides leading smart healthcare solutions, creating convenient and efficient medical tools tailored to the learning and work scenarios of healthcare professionals to help improve their speed and efficiency. In collaboration with hospitals, it co-develops digital specialized departments, offering AI-driven healthcare solutions to medical institutions, including fundus image analysis, clinical decision support, medical big data, intelligent pre-diagnosis assistants, and chronic disease management.

Zhang Zongjie stated that with a significant rise in national health awareness, there has been substantial growth in the demand for internet-based health knowledge and services. Baidu Health now boasts over 100 million daily active users and fulfills 200 million health-related search queries per day. Centered on Baidu Health Medical Encyclopedia, Baidu Health has established a content ecosystem by aggregating resources from authoritative experts and professional associations to create high-quality, credible health education content. This initiative aims to build an authoritative platform for medical and health science popularization, thereby enhancing the health literacy of the general public. Currently, Baidu Health Medical Encyclopedia collaborates with more than 2,200 authoritative experts and teams, as well as over 200 leading industry institutions, achieving an average of more than 20 million daily views for its encyclopedia entries.

Meanwhile, Baidu Health Medical Encyclopedia is also actively exploring innovations in science popularization, providing users with authoritative, professional, comprehensive, and easy-to-understand health knowledge through diverse content formats such as articles with images, infographics, live streams, and videos. Since 2017, the News and Publicity Center of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has maintained ongoing collaboration with Baidu. Together, they have produced more than 1,300 short educational videos and edited and reviewed over 5,300 entries on pharmaceuticals and medical devices, progressing from creating explanatory videos for drug and device terms to building an authoritative platform for science communication in this field.

Zhang Zongjie stated that Baidu Health, leveraging its self-developed “Precision Doctor-Patient Matching Engine,” integrates technologies such as AI and big data to create digital entry points for specific diseases for public tertiary Grade-A hospitals. This enables precise online linking and matching between patients with specific conditions and specialists at these public hospitals, thereby shortening patients’ healthcare journeys and expanding the reach of internet-based medical services.

This September, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University and Baidu Health have entered into a strategic partnership. The initial phase will focus on five specialized disease areas: lung tumors, airway diseases, pulmonary vascular diseases, interstitial lung diseases, and pulmonary infections. Meanwhile, both parties will further collaborate to deepen their internet healthcare services. In the future, patients will be able to access precise medical services through Baidu APP’s intelligent mini-programs, including appointment registration, report inquiries, and online consultations.

Currently, Baidu Health has established a healthcare service network covering 60% of China’s provinces and municipalities, connecting nearly 100 public Grade-A tertiary hospitals affiliated with ministries, provincial authorities, and universities. It has directly linked to more than 100 National Medical Centers, Regional Medical Centers, and national/provincial key clinical specialties, serving over 500,000 patients across various regions in the past year. Leveraging its disease-specific hospital visitation capabilities, Baidu Health is actively pursuing innovative service models. In collaboration with IBT Wujiang Technology, Baidu Health enables users who search for educational content on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to quickly access specialized outpatient clinics at relevant public hospitals, where they can receive precise assessments and digital therapeutic interventions.

Zhang Zongjie stated that Baidu Health is committed to becoming an internet healthcare platform that truly enables the general public to access comprehensive and convenient medical services spanning online to offline settings and from within hospitals to community care, thereby driving the development of a smart industrial ecosystem.