Eleven Keywords Charting the New Course of Future Healthcare: A Prospectus Overview
“We, the media, industry, government, and institutions—all stakeholders—stand at this inflection point for the healthcare sector.” At the Strategic Media Roundtable Forum of the inaugural “Future Healthcare” China Medical Technology Innovation Industry Ecosystem Summit, Chen Yining, Editor-in-Chief of Yi Qushi (Medical Trends), who served as the on-site guest moderator, delivered a passionate address. The “inflection point” she referred to pertains not only to top-level design but also to the ecosystem level of industrial transformation. Representatives from ten leading medical and business media outlets in attendance deeply resonated with this perspective.
According to incomplete statistics, China’s medical device industry has expanded rapidly over the past two years. In terms of enterprise count alone, the number has grown from fewer than 15,000 to more than 20,000. Xu Ningsheng, President of Pharmaceutical Economic News, which is affiliated with the Southern Institute of Pharmaceutical Economics, disclosed a figure: “The annual growth rate has exceeded 40%.”
In the 14th Five-Year Plan, the term “innovation” appears with high frequency, being mentioned more than 50 times. As one of the strategic pillar industries prioritized by the state during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the healthcare industry is experiencing a turning point at the top-level architectural design, which is reflected in at least four aspects: First, for the first time, the plan proposes providing “whole-lifecycle healthcare services” to the general public; second, it emphasizes the establishment of a disease prevention system; third, it strengthens the construction of the public health system; and fourth, it innovates the coordination mechanism between medical treatment and disease prevention. “This marks a significant shift. In the future, China’s economic growth will rely not only on its status as a manufacturing powerhouse but also on its emerging role as a major consumer market, with healthcare consumption constituting a significant component,” said Chen Yining.
Guo Weizhong, founder of the well-known new media platforms for business reporting, Jiemian and Cailianshe, also provided corroborating evidence from the perspective of media practice. “From the standpoint of business journalism, hard-core technology, pharmaceuticals, and intelligent manufacturing are key industries strongly promoted by national public opinion guidance. Although the healthcare industry, given its unique characteristics, holds value in ‘breaking out’ to reach a broader audience, we must also accurately assess the risks associated with such ‘breakout’ efforts.”
In this $10 trillion medical technology industry, how can media find their positioning amidst the booming new industrial ecosystem?
Li Datao, founder of VCBeat, shared his perspective: “Everyone talks about technology-driven development, but what exactly are the changes brought by new technologies to the healthcare sector? We believe there should be three dimensions: First, a key emphasis in the 14th Five-Year Plan is that technological breakthroughs stem from research institutions and universities, experts, and clinicians, as well as from the multi-party collaboration among medicine, industry, academia, research, and investment—a trend increasingly prioritized by many investment firms focusing on early-stage projects. Second, change arises from a consensus on transformation, and building such multi-stakeholder consensus is precisely the role we as media must play. The third dimension of change lies in industrial practice; it is through real-world industry implementation that our dreams are truly turned into reality.”
This multi-party consensus was nearly unanimously endorsed by the media present: the foundation for building a public value system in the new healthcare ecosystem lies in the consensus of being “patient-centered.”
This is not a cliché, but rather a “return to value.” Ji Minhua, Editor-in-Chief of *Health News at Eight*, who previously founded Caixin Health Point, stated candidly, “From my perspective, the principle of being patient-centered has never changed. In other words, whether in journalism or within enterprises, if we can truly return to a patient-centered approach, many issues will be readily resolved. The challenge, however, lies not in talking about it, but in whether we can actually put it into practice.”
Tan Yong, Executive Producer of the E-Drug Manager media series, shares this sentiment. From the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry’s development in China, it is transitioning from the previously extensive business models to technology-driven enterprises. “However, it is important to note that the entire industry suffers from path dependence. Technology-driven growth entails risk; embracing technology means embracing uncertainty, whereas marketing-driven growth offered strong certainty in the past. In the past, the pharmaceutical industry was characterized as low-risk, high-profit, and high-income. Now, it is truly moving toward a high-risk, high-profit model—without high risk, there can be no high profit. Amidst such a significant shift, I believe the only role media can play is to generate a massive flow of information, gradually reshaping people’s perceptions.”
The vast information asymmetry between patients and medical decision-makers is a fundamental reality facing the healthcare industry. In the Chinese context, patients are in a relatively more passive position. “They are essentially recipients of charity, as patients in China have limited decision-making power. This contrasts with abroad, where patient organizations can even participate in drug pricing,” said Lyu Yan, Head of Digital Ecosystem at DXY, who studied medicine in the UK for many years. How to effectively channel and rectify these historical distortions to achieve a true return to value remains a challenge that requires joint efforts from both media and enterprises.
Who will bridge the information gap between doctors and patients? In the current new industrial ecosystem, the understanding of doctor-patient relationships is undergoing subtle changes. Zhu Ping, head of the New Health Research Institute at 21st Century Business Herald, believes that “In the past, cutting-edge medical knowledge was disseminated among physicians through a hierarchical administrative system within hospitals—initially held by only three to five top specialists across China, then passed down from experts to department heads, and from department heads to ordinary physicians. One can imagine how distorted or delayed this information became by the time it reached patients. In reality, media should participate in this process; health communication should not be a highly ‘centralized’ endeavor.”
In recent years, as the state has intensified reforms in medical insurance payment and drug pricing, the influence of stakeholders within the elongated decision-making chain has become increasingly intricate. Ji Minhua stated bluntly, “Previously, the doctor-patient relationship was understood merely as interactions between doctors and patients. However, within the current complex structure of the ‘three-medical’ system (medical care, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals), information asymmetry and misunderstandings have arisen among various parties. Particularly after the implementation of volume-based procurement, the need for communication has actually increased.” In its coverage of centralized procurement for orthopedics and coronary stents, Health News at 8 has expanded the perspective on doctor-patient relationships to include hospital presidents, primary-care physicians, and even medical sales representatives, as they are all integral components of this “expanded” relational framework.
As a platform that initially targeted pharmaceutical distributors, Cyberslan’s Editor-in-Chief, Wang Weijia, also acknowledges this ongoing change based on her personal experience. “Changes in healthcare consumption habits, including the introduction of new elements such as commercial insurance in the intermediate process, have led to shifts on the client side. For media outlets like ours, this actually means that clients are moving further upstream in the value chain. However, I believe that being ‘patient-centered’ is an irrefutable truth. The key lies in how this principle is implemented. Although many issues still remain for the industry to discuss and resolve, the path forward is much clearer now than it was ten years ago.”
In recent years, with the emergence of innovative approaches such as the out-of-hospital market and internet-based healthcare, the functions of media platforms are undergoing a transformation. This shift is far more significant than the data on paper might suggest. According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, the volume of online medical consultations in China surged by 5.2 times in 2020 compared to the previous year. Although there has been a slight decline this year, the increase remains substantial.
“But the out-of-hospital doctor–patient interactions we discuss today go far beyond online consultations,” said Lü Yan, Head of DXY’s Digital Ecosystem. “Taking DXY as an example, our integrated vaccine services have achieved strong results in creating new medical decision-making scenarios. Through big data–driven resource reallocation, monthly vaccinations have reached 100,000 doses, covering Category II self-paid vaccines such as influenza, HPV, and herpes zoster vaccines, effectively complementing the current public health system. Moreover, what surprised me is that while paid knowledge content for the general public was a hot trend a couple of years ago and has now plateaued, growth among physicians remains substantial.” Media experts participating in the discussion concurred, noting that there is still significant room for innovative technologies to play a role in systematic education on medical information and health literacy, as well as in the training of primary care physicians.
On the other hand, patient advocacy groups in China are gradually gaining strength. For instance, organizations focused on rare diseases, lymphoma, and diabetes have played a highly positive role in supporting diagnosis and rehabilitation. Li Chenyu, a person in charge at the People’s Daily Health Client, also shared this sentiment: “In 2015, the ‘Healthy China Action’ was elevated to the level of national strategy. In this process, I believe that we in the media are no longer merely disseminating health news or information; our future direction is to serve as health promotion agencies.”
As more stakeholders, including media outlets and enterprises, become involved in the expanded landscape of doctor-patient communication, how to guide these dynamics to maintain a healthy doctor-patient relationship has drawn significant attention from the media present. Liu Hui, Dean of VCBeat Research Institute and formerly an orthopedic surgeon, stated, “As doctors and patients are at the core of this interaction, it is crucial to foster an environment that allows for tolerance and forgiveness toward physicians’ errors. One of the most critical impediments to slow medical progress is the prohibition against sharing failure cases. To be more specific, this resembles the ‘black box’ phenomenon. If we compare healthcare with the aviation industry, the latter’s slower historical progress stemmed from its practice of globally sharing insights derived from black box recordings after failures. In contrast, the healthcare industry rarely shares such information when problems arise, because any medical error involving a physician or healthcare decision-maker is viewed as a profound shame and unforgivable. However, I believe it is necessary for the media to drive change in this regard, to break open the ‘medical black box,’ and thereby encourage greater tolerance from patients and the public toward physicians.”
Today, the industry stands at a critical “inflection point.” Not only is a technology-driven transformation urgently needed, but reforms to the payment system—centered on accessibility and efficiency—are also significantly reshaping how various stakeholders engage in building a new value system. After nearly three hours of intense intellectual exchange, Chen Yining concluded, “In the future, as prices for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and healthcare services move toward a balance between patient interests and medical value, we must achieve the goals of deleveraging, reducing excess capacity, and destocking, while simultaneously fostering richer soil and greater space for technological innovation. To balance equity and efficiency, we need to build a public consensus around this new industrial ecosystem of the future: ‘Patient-centricity’ is the foundation for the return of all value.”