WeDoctor Named to Two Prestigious Lists at China Health Industry Upgrade Summit Amid Latest IPO Filing

From October 11 to 13, the “2021 Tianfu Health Talk – The 6th China Grand Health Industry Upgrade Summit,” guided by the Sichuan Provincial Health Commission and the Chinese Society of Health Information and Medical Big Data, and hosted by the General Practice and Health Management Committee of the Chinese Society of Health Information and Medical Big Data and EqualOcean, was held. The results of the “2021 China Grand Health Industry Awards” were announced at the event. Leveraging its years of innovative exploration in the field of digital healthcare services, WeDoctor was listed on two major rankings: the “Top 20 Internet Healthcare Companies in the 2021 Top 100 Digital Healthcare Enterprises in China” and the “Top 10 Grassroots Healthcare Enterprises in China 2021.”

Behind the two awards and the recognition from experts and media lies WeDoctor’s persistent effort to enhance the efficiency of China’s healthcare service system through digital technology. In particular, its innovative practices in promoting primary healthcare have become a microcosm of the advancement of digital health in China and the empowerment of grassroots healthcare reform.

△ WeDoctor Named Among “Top 20 Internet Healthcare Companies in the 2021 China Top 100 Digital Healthcare Enterprises List” (left image) and “Top 10 Grassroots Healthcare Companies in China for 2021” (right image)

Wang Yuping, Vice President of WeDoctor Group, was invited to attend the conference and deliver a keynote speech. He stated that the relative weakness of primary healthcare resources and the difficulty patients face in accessing medical care have long been persistent challenges in the development of China’s healthcare sector. As a digital health enterprise, WeDoctor has, in recent years, leveraged digitalization to support healthcare reform, continuously embedding its technology, services, and resources into grassroots communities. The company aims to enhance the service capabilities of primary healthcare institutions, enabling residents at the community level to access high-quality, convenient medical and health services close to home.

Easier said than done. Over the years, WeDoctor has continuously explored and pioneered a new pathway to empower primary care—integrating medical and public health services, combining clinical care with disease prevention, and merging healthcare with wellness management—thereby creating a closed-loop system for primary healthcare services.

Specifically, “integration of medical and health services” aims to empower family doctors through digitalization; “integration of medical care and prevention” seeks to establish a primary care system centered on health, emphasizing “prevention first and combining prevention with treatment”; while “integration of medical care and health management” helps residents achieve self-managed health. Ultimately, this enables a full-process, closed-loop service spanning pre-consultation stages (medical insurance card swiping, digital health records, and health check-ups), intra-consultation stages (physician consultations and issuing shared prescriptions), and post-consultation stages (health guidance and home-based care management).

Guided by this philosophy, WeDoctor leverages its technological, service, and resource advantages to support localities in exploring the establishment of grassroots medical consortia underpinned by internet-based service platforms.

△ Wang Yuping, Vice President of WeDoctor Group, Delivers Keynote Speech

According to Wang Yuping, WeDoctor is currently exploring the development of “Digital Health Communities” in various regions across China, with implementations already launched in multiple provinces and municipalities, including Tianjin, Shandong, and Henan. By leveraging its internet-based healthcare service platform as a nexus, WeDoctor integrates medical institutions at all levels within these regions into a unified management system. This approach consolidates diverse resources and stakeholders to facilitate coordinated reform among healthcare services, health insurance, and pharmaceutical supply (“Three-Medical Linkage”), thereby promoting information interoperability and operational integration within the Digital Health Communities, while strengthening industry regulation and business collaboration.

To address the persistent challenges of insufficient medical personnel, scarce medications, and limited diagnostic capabilities in grassroots areas, particularly in rural regions, WeDoctor has leveraged its self-developed “Mobile Hospital” solution—comprising cloud-based mobile clinic vehicles, cloud-based mobile clinic kits, and medical and health workstations—to bring a comprehensive suite of services, including examinations, laboratory tests, diagnosis and treatment, prescription issuance, and medication dispensing, directly to patients’ doorsteps. This initiative enables residents in grassroots communities to conveniently access high-quality medical care close to home. Furthermore, by deploying AI-driven healthcare products such as the Ruiyi Intelligent Doctor and the Huatuo Intelligent Doctor, WeDoctor helps enhance the competencies of grassroots physicians and strengthens the foundational grassroots medical and health service system.

In Jia County, Henan Province, supported by WeDoctor’s technology and services, the local area has leveraged internet hospital platforms and resources to establish an intelligent tiered diagnosis and treatment system spanning county, township, and village-level medical institutions. The “Mobile Hospital” brings services directly to residents’ doorsteps, providing family doctor contract services and healthcare solutions to grassroots communities. By the end of 2020, Jia County had completed family doctor contracts for 476,000 individuals, achieving a family doctor contract rate of 73.2%. The contract rate for key populations increased by 6.37% year-on-year, while the service fulfillment rate rose by 7.52% year-on-year. The “Jia County Model” was featured in a special report by the State Council’s Leading Group for Comprehensive Deepening Reforms in 2018 and promoted nationwide. In May 2021, Jia County received commendation from the State Council’s supervisory inspection due to its notable achievements in comprehensive public hospital reform. In August 2021, the National Health Commission designated Jia County as a “National Pilot Zone for Comprehensive Primary Healthcare,” making it the only county-level region in Henan Province selected for this initiative.

According to reports, by the end of 2020, WeDoctor’s “Mobile Hospital” service had reached a population of 28 million across 69 counties in 12 provinces of China. A grassroots network integrating online and offline health services, “mobile hospitals” traversing village entrances and fields, and dedicated healthcare professionals steadfastly serving at the primary care level—these cumulative efforts have become a vital line of defense in safeguarding the health of rural residents.

△ Conference Venue

Wang Yuping further highlighted that WeDoctor’s “Primary Care Digital Health Consortium” pilot in Tianjin is digitally empowering grassroots healthcare through the implementation of four cloud-based platforms—Cloud Management, Cloud Services, Cloud Pharmacy, and Cloud Diagnostics. This initiative has established a health-centered accountability system, driving the healthcare sector’s transition from a “price-differential model” to an “efficacy-differential model.” “The Tianjin practice has emerged as a highly effective real-world model, which may well indicate the future direction for the development of medical consortia.”

“The significance of digital healthcare lies in making health accessible to everyone, ultimately achieving universal health,” said Wang Yuping. The challenges in the healthcare sector are most pronounced at the grassroots level, and so too should be the future of digital healthcare development. However, how to embed the latest technologies and concepts into the grassroots foundation to yield the most inclusive health benefits still requires relentless exploration.