DingTalk Launches 'Future Department' to Build an All-in-One Work Platform for Physicians

From July 29 to July 31, the China Hospital Information Network Conference (CHIMA 2021) was held in Qingdao, Shandong Province. At the conference, Alibaba DingTalk launched its “Future Department” product, designed to help hospitals achieve digital governance at the level of clinical departments. According to DingTalk, the “Future Department” initiative aims to build a new model of hospital centered on “people,” integrating more third-party applications to create a one-stop work platform for physicians.

Currently, more than 5,000 public hospitals across China are leveraging DingTalk as their digital foundation to advance digital transformation. Wang Zhongyu, General Manager of DingTalk’s Government and Healthcare Industry Center, pointed out at the conference that public hospitals in China are undergoing three major transitions: from extensive management to refined management, from scale-driven growth to quality improvement and efficiency enhancement, and from a focus on material resources to a focus on human resources. In line with the trend of these “three major transitions,” DingTalk has launched the “Future Department” initiative, centered on physicians, to help hospitals coordinate and manage medical resources in real time and with precision.

According to reports, hospital information systems are typically organized by administrative departments, whereas DingTalk’s “Future Department” solution redefines the smallest operational unit as the medical team within clinical departments. Once activated on the DingTalk workbench, this system enables managers at all levels and physicians to monitor real-time personnel status with role-based access control. This provides a basis for optimizing resource allocation and delivers accurate data to support various initiatives, including training and performance management.

The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine (SAHZU) is the first co-creation hospital for DingTalk’s “Future Department” initiative. Currently, 44 clinical departments and nearly 2,500 physicians across the hospital have adopted the “Future Department” platform. At this conference, Xu Li from the Medical Affairs Department of SAHZU shared insights into its practical implementation. Xu Li stated that medical administration involves 18 key regulations and is characterized by multidimensionality and complexity; however, its core ultimately revolves around physicians. Patients need accessible channels to find suitable physicians, while hospitals must allocate resources reasonably based on physicians’ roles and work status to fully unleash productivity and efficiently meet patient needs. However, under traditional information systems, hospitals face challenges such as diverse organizational structures, unclear personnel affiliations, and inadequate performance evaluation. Therefore, SAHZU has engaged in deep co-creation with DingTalk to develop a digital management platform that spans “clinical departments–medical teams–physicians.”

Leveraging the platform, hospital administrators can accurately monitor each physician’s real-time work assignments, status details, and historical records across the entire institution. Departments can conveniently maintain their data on DingTalk, enabling standardized data management and sharing across departments, facilitating early detection of personnel anomalies, and effectively addressing managerial issues.

“Previously, hospitals struggled to accurately maintain physician records. A large number of externally hired physicians, visiting scholars, residents undergoing standardized training, and postdoctoral fellows were not integrated into medical administrative workflows. Management of cross-departmental personnel was disorganized, leaving hospital administrators without a clear basis for decision-making when allocating physician resources. Additionally, training and payroll processes required repeated verification of information. DingTalk’s ‘Future Department’ solution has addressed these challenges, enabling hospitals to manage physician resources with greater precision and facilitating more efficient collaboration among doctors. In the future, by integrating third-party applications, we aim to create a one-stop work platform for physicians, providing data support and enhanced collaborative capabilities for their clinical practices,” said Wei Yawei, Director of the Healthcare Industry at DingTalk.

Wei Yawei revealed that there are currently over 100 third-party applications for the hospital industry on the DingTalk Open Platform, covering areas such as hospital administration, medical care, teaching and research, equipment and facilities, and operational management.