Shandong Digital Health Platform Recognized as a Model Case for Institutional Innovation in China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone

March 22On [date], the General Office of the People’s Government of Shandong Province issued the “Notice on Promoting the Institutional Innovation Achievements of the China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone,” specifying that the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone has explored 25 reform pilot experiences and 26These best practice cases will be promoted across the province. Among them,“Best Practice Cases of ‘Empowering the Coordinated Development of Medical Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, and Healthcare through the National Health Initiative’” will serve as innovative, reference-worthy outcomes with specific application scenarios for learning and adoption by regions nationwide.。

Shandong Internet Medical Insurance and Health Service Platform (hereinafter referred to as the “Shandong Big Health Platform”) is China’s first open, comprehensive service platform characterized by “government support, state-controlled ownership, integration of advantageous resources, and market-oriented operations.” By adopting an innovative service model of “Internet + Medical Insurance + Healthcare + Pharmaceuticals,” the platform reengineers processes centered on public welfare. It provides integrated services—including online consultations, prescription renewals for chronic diseases, medical insurance settlement, home delivery of medicines and nursing care, and assisted agency services—to disabled and semi-disabled individuals, patients with chronic diseases, disadvantaged groups, and the elderly across the province, particularly under pandemic prevention and control conditions. This approach meets the multi-level, multi-domain, and diverse service needs of different population groups.The platform combines online and offline approaches to innovate chronic disease management, creating a digital chronic disease health community that takes tiered diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases as its entry point, relies on digital platforms for support, and places people’s health at its core. Through incremental performance reforms and information technology measures, it guides and promotes the vertical flow and effective sharing of high-quality medical resources, comprehensively enhancing the diagnostic and treatment capabilities, drug supply assurance, and health management capacities of primary healthcare institutions. Furthermore, it drives supply-side innovation in commercial health insurance, achieving data interoperability and integrated regulation. It also develops an intelligent medical insurance monitoring system that integrates online and offline methods and covers the entire process—pre-event, during-event, and post-event—to effectively safeguard the public’s “life-saving funds.”

Statistical data shows that the services of the Shandong Big Health Platform have covered all 16 prefecture-level cities in the province, cumulatively serving 17.5 million insured individuals, providing online consultation services to 7.7 million people, and managing care for 1.73 million patients with chronic diseases. Through the platform’s “Online Follow-up Consultation” feature, users no longer need to visit offline hospitals or pharmacies. With real-time verification of medical insurance information, the platform achieves seamless integration of key processes, including medical insurance authentication, follow-up consultation verification, online prescription issuance, and home delivery of medications.

In January 2021, the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Shandong Provincial People’s Government issued the Implementation Opinions on Implementing the “Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Deepening the Reform of the Healthcare Security System,” incorporating the development of the Shandong Grand Health Platform into the 14th Five-Year Plan as well as projects for the conversion of old and new growth drivers and internet-based innovation and development. In October of the same year, Shandong Internet Grand Health Group, the entity responsible for building and operating the Shandong Grand Health Platform, became one of the first enterprises to be awarded the title of “Free Trade Zone Innovation Demonstration Base” for its innovation and exploration in a new model of internet-based healthcare featuring the tripartite linkage of “internet + medical insurance + medical services + pharmaceuticals.”

Leveraging innovative applications of internet and digital technologies to empower the healthcare industry is a crucial measure for enhancing governmental governance capabilities and service levels, as well as advancing supply-side reforms in medical services. Currently, the Shandong Grand Health Platform is at the forefront nationwide in reform initiatives such as online health insurance payment and settlement, digital chronic disease management, intelligent health insurance supervision, and the integration of basic medical insurance with commercial health insurance. In the future, the platform will fully leverage its role as a “Pilot Demonstration Base for Free Trade Zone Innovation,” accelerate the integration of advantageous resources from all sectors, provide the public with more diversified, efficient, and convenient healthcare services, and contribute wisdom and strength to building a digitally robust province and a Healthy Shandong.