DXY Hosts 2021 China Hospital Development Conference, Highlighting the Multiplicative Effect of Talent and Branding
From July 9 to 11, 2021, the 4th China Hospital Development Conference, guided by the Human Resources Management Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Management Science and hosted by DXY, was held. At the conference, Li Tiantian, founder and chairman of DXY, stated that DXY has always adhered to the principle of “user value first,” regarding medical professionals as the most important and core component of its overall business. By leveraging professional expertise and reliable products, DXY aims to provide greater support and empowerment to healthcare providers, enabling them to deliver more professional care.
Themed “Empowering Physicians with Greater Professionalism,” the conference convened nearly 800 attendees—including government officials, executives from public hospitals and private healthcare institutions, experts and scholars, and cross-industry elites—for a high-level dialogue on medical talent development and hospital brand building. Additionally, the event featured an immersive experience journey, leveraging interactive game scenarios to stimulate and continuously reinforce participants’ understanding of and resonance with leadership concepts.
At the conference, DXY unveiled the “2021 Report on the Development of Medical Talent in China” (hereinafter referred to as the Report). As the only professional report in the industry that provides an in-depth analysis of the current state of talent in the healthcare sector, it draws on surveys involving nearly 1,000 medical institutions and more than 3,000 practitioners. The Report comprehensively outlines the limitations and opportunities in the development of medical talent in China today, offering guidance for their career growth and employment choices.
To achieve the transition from a “disease-centered” to a “health-centered” approach, it is not only necessary to change the healthcare mindset that prioritizes treatment over prevention, but also more critical to accelerate the cultivation of a workforce of medical professionals skilled in both prevention and treatment.
According to the report, the development of healthcare talent exhibits the following six major trends: rapid industrial growth coexists with structural imbalances, leading to persistent shortages and uneven distribution of healthcare talent resources; the acceleration of the broader health industry is driving the decentralization of healthcare talent resources; the value of specialized professionals is rising, making high-end healthcare talent extremely scarce and highly sought-after; the interplay between policy and the digital environment is catalyzing diverse changes in market job roles; lifelong learning among healthcare professionals is becoming essential, with increasing demand for professional soft skills; and healthcare talent recruitment and job seeking are becoming increasingly mobile-based, data-driven, and tool-enabled.
In the face of “long-standing” challenges such as structural imbalances in the healthcare industry, uneven distribution of resources, and the extreme scarcity of high-end medical talent, Shuai Yuhuan, Vice President of DXY and Head of DXY Talent, stated: “If healthcare institutions fail to prioritize the foundational training of medical professionals, they may find themselves with no talent to rely on in the future.”
Coincidentally, the “Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Public Hospitals,” publicly released by the General Office of the State Council, points out that the allocation of resources in public hospitals should shift from “emphasizing material elements” to “prioritizing talent and technology,” once again underscoring the strategic significance of building a strong healthcare workforce.
Shuai Yuhuan suggests that, on one hand, healthcare institutions need to place greater emphasis on employer brand building to enhance talent attraction through soft power. On the other hand, she calls for joint attention from government departments and healthcare institutions toward strengthening the foundational development of medical talent. This can be achieved by promoting industry standardization, expanding talent reserves, and improving person-job fit, thereby realizing quality improvement and capacity expansion across the entire lifecycle—from recruitment of medical students and talent training to employment and career development.
As a professional HR service platform for the healthcare industry under DXY, DXY Talent collaborated with leading healthcare institutions to initiate and establish the “Healthcare HR Managers Alliance.” Founded in Hangzhou in January 2015, it is China’s first non-governmental industry platform for healthcare human resources managers. “We aim to continuously promote proactive talent development by joining forces with industry associations and healthcare institutions to build this Healthcare HR Alliance platform,” said Shuai Yuhuan.
Talent is the foundation of a hospital’s survival, while its brand constitutes its depth and soul, serving as a crucial factor in long-term development, consolidating talent advantages, enhancing internal cohesion, and improving service quality.
According to the data from the “Insights Report on Best Employers in Healthcare Institutions,” awareness of hospital brand building has gradually increased in recent years. The proportion of hospitals voluntarily registering for the Top 100 List rose from 11.44% to 67.87%, with secondary hospitals showing the largest increase, reaching 125%.
Upon examining the underlying reasons, Li Tiantian, founder and chairman of DXY, believes that hospitals’ emphasis on brand promotion also reflects, to some extent, the healthcare industry’s growing focus on patient-centered and physician-centered care.
By fostering a positive, harmonious, and progressive atmosphere, healthcare institutions have mobilized the enthusiasm of medical staff, enhanced service quality, smoothed doctor-patient relationships, and improved the working environment and soft infrastructure for healthcare professionals. This, in turn, will continuously attract talent, create new internal momentum for hospital brand building, and ultimately strengthen the core competitiveness of hospitals.
From a human-centric perspective, the cultivation of individual physician brands will leverage the "influencer effect" to enhance the overall brand reputation of hospitals. Tian Jishun, a key opinion leader and the strategic mastermind behind Dingxiang Doctor’s Douyin (TikTok) presence, asserts that “while a single influencer physician is merely an influencer, a group of such physicians constitutes a brand.” As an efficiency-enhancing tool, the internet will continue to amplify the value of individuals.
This year marks the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan. The continued and in-depth implementation of the “Healthy China” initiative has made the broader health industry a new driver of economic development, as well as a strong guarantee for social stability and people’s well-being.
Shuai Yuhuan believes that the development of professional medical talent and the establishment of premium hospital brands ultimately aim to jointly promote the enhancement of social value. On one hand, improving the quality and expanding the size of the medical workforce can alleviate the severe employment pressure in the healthcare sector while enhancing public access to medical services. On the other hand, brand building helps establish correct healthcare-seeking attitudes among citizens, thereby achieving a comprehensive improvement in health literacy.
To date, DXY Talent has cumulatively served over 8,000 medical institutions, including public hospitals, private hospitals, clinics and outpatient departments, rehabilitation and elderly care facilities, health management organizations, and the medical biotechnology industry. It has posted more than 950,000 job openings, maintains a database of over 3.8 million professional resumes, and has provided job-seeking services to a cumulative total of 4.5 million healthcare professionals.
Furthermore, the "Medical Brand Management Alliance," jointly established under the leadership of DXY Hospital Hub and in collaboration with benchmark medical institutions across China, is dedicated to enhancing the overall momentum of medical brand development and healthcare management in China, thereby creating value for the entire healthcare industry. To date, the alliance has invited elite domestic instructors to deliver more than 40 live-streamed sessions, with cumulative participation exceeding 20,000 attendees.
“In terms of hospital management, employees—namely, medical professionals and allied health personnel—are the core; in terms of healthcare services, patients are the core,” said Li Tiantian. DXY has long focused on both healthcare providers and the public, serving these two core user groups. We aim to maximize the value for both groups, thereby enhancing social value.