WeDoctor Empowers Tianjin's Healthcare Transformation through Digital Health Ecosystem

“Deepen the implementation of the three-year action plan for digital development, coordinate the construction of the digital economy, digital society, and digital government, adhere to application-led strategies, strengthen working mechanisms, create a batch of demonstration application scenarios, promote better interconnectivity and sharing of data, and enhance the sense of gain for enterprises and the public.” In the 2022 Tianjin Municipal Government Work Report, promoting digital empowerment for transformation and development, and cultivating key digital platforms, became one of the topics of primary concern to deputies attending the Tianjin “Two Sessions.”

“The ‘Digital Health City’ model, which deeply integrates the Healthy China initiative with digital city development, will comprehensively improve urban digitalization and health standards, thereby enhancing the quality of life for citizens.” Ming Dong, a member of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a standing committee member of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of Jiusan Society, and Dean of the Institute of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine at Tianjin University, suggested that efforts should be focused on four key areas to establish a win-win mechanism featuring government leadership, corporate collaboration, public participation, and healthcare improvement, thereby creating a multi-dimensional, organic structure for a healthy city.

First, achieve interconnectivity between general health data and medical data, create a one-stop digital health platform, and reconstruct the service system for public convenience and benefit. Second, build modules for “Smart Healthcare,” “Smart Public Health,” “Smart Family Doctor Services,” “Smart Chronic Disease Management,” “Smart Elderly Care,” and “Smart Regulation,” establishing a demonstration base for innovation in smart healthcare applications. Third, establish a high-end think tank under the National Health and Medical Big Data Research Institute, strengthen joint training of cross-disciplinary talents in digital healthcare, and promote the construction and expansion of the digital health industry chain. Fourth, launch major R&D special projects on smart healthcare and digital health in Tianjin, accelerate the digital transformation of medical institutions and industries, and strive to build Tianjin into a model city for digital health featuring collaborative innovation among government, industry, academia, research, and application.

As early as January 2020, the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement on Digital Health with WeDoctor. Under the leadership of the Tianjin Municipal Health Commission, Tianjin WeDoctor General Hospital took the lead in collaborating with 267 primary healthcare institutions across the city to establish the “Tianjin Primary Care Digital Health Consortium,” with full-scale construction launched by the end of April that year. Over the past two years, by empowering primary care through the implementation of the “Four Clouds”—namely Cloud Management, Cloud Services, Cloud Pharmacy, and Cloud Diagnostics—the Tianjin Primary Care Digital Health Consortium has taken shape as a Chinese-style Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) covering residents’ entire life cycle and whole process of health management. It has become one of the key focal points for Tianjin in improving the universal healthcare security system and building a digital health city.

Notably, by leveraging digital technologies to empower the existing healthcare system, the Digital Health Community has established a Chinese-style Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). Building on the revitalization of local medical resources and using chronic disease management as an entry point, it has explored payment models such as “global bundled payments” and “capitation/diagnosis-related group (DRG) payments.” By implementing the performance constraint mechanism of “retaining surpluses and covering no deficits,” it is driving the transition of health insurance payments from “paying for specific medical service items” to “paying for the public’s health.”

This model has effectively driven the transformation of the healthcare service system from a “price differential” to an “efficacy differential.” The former is disease-centered, operates on a fee-for-service basis, fragments medical services from patient data, and compensates healthcare personnel through a “piece-rate” model primarily derived from price differentials in the supply chains for pharmaceuticals and consumables. In contrast, the latter is health-centered, adopts diagnosis-related group (DRG) or capitation payment models, provides integrated online-and-offline services across the entire life cycle, and derives performance incentives from the “efficacy differential” reflected in improved patient health outcomes and reduced medical expenditures.

Statistical data show that after more than a year of development, the standardized management rate for diabetic patients in primary healthcare institutions participating in Tianjin’s pilot Digital Health Community initiative reached 76.68%. Analysis of patient samples managed for over three months revealed a 21.58% increase in blood glucose control rates. Furthermore, primary healthcare institutions that have implemented capitation-based payment achieved medical insurance surplus rates ranging from 16% to 31%. With the dual improvement in primary care service capacity and patient access convenience, outpatient visits at pilot primary hospitals within the Health Community increased by 120%.

Meanwhile, during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and early 2022, Tianjin’s Primary Care Digital Health Consortium leveraged unified digital platforms such as “Cloud Services” and “Cloud Pharmacies” to maximize its “cloud-based advantages.” This approach not only effectively met the needs of Tianjin residents for online consultations during epidemic control periods but also promptly addressed and ensured the insured medication needs of patients with chronic diseases in specially controlled areas, thereby contributing a unique “Tianjin Model” to the normalized epidemic prevention and control efforts in megacities.