WeDoctor Launches Digital Oncology Health Community with End-to-End Online-Offline Integrated Services

Building a cancer prevention and control “network” that offers better healthcare experiences, lower financial burdens, and more efficient integration of medical care and disease prevention has become a new key focus in digital health. WeDoctor, China’s largest digital healthcare service platform, is committed to creating a “Digital Cancer Care Community.” By restructuring medical resources and supply chain systems, it aims to establish a patient-centered, end-to-end service covering prevention, diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation, follow-up, and payment. This digital platform empowers the entire industry chain with comprehensive solutions, supporting regional cancer prevention and control efforts.

Given the unique nature of oncological diseases, hospitals are required to provide long-term follow-up care for patients, who in turn bear substantial medical costs. In April this year, WeDoctor launched the “Special Disease Worry-Free Membership” product, offering exclusive services to members with special diseases such as cancer, and thereby initiating exploration of a digital model for integrated oncology care communities. Leveraging the advantages of its digital platform, WeDoctor is building a four-tier physician collaboration system—spanning national, provincial, municipal, and primary care levels—through its internet hospital. It is also establishing disease-specific supply chain systems to deliver efficient, one-stop, integrated services to cancer patients. Meanwhile, diversified payment methods are being employed to alleviate the financial burden on cancer patients and ease pressure on medical insurance funds. Currently, WeDoctor’s Oncology Integrated Care Community has formed a comprehensive “online + offline” closed-loop service model, with initial implementation underway for certain conditions in regions such as Tianjin and Shandong.

Ms. Zhao, a lung cancer patient residing in a county-level city near Weifang, Shandong Province, is a long-time user of WeDoctor. Having frequently used the WeDoctor app for appointment registration, she promptly signed up for a trial of its newly launched Special Disease Membership service. “Not only can I get prescriptions online and have medications delivered to my doorstep, but I also have access to a dedicated physician for timely consultations on my condition and medication regimens, along with additional discounts on pharmaceuticals. It’s truly convenient!” Ms. Zhao remarked that this streamlined service has spared her the hassle of traveling back and forth to the hospital for follow-up visits, significantly alleviating both the time and financial burdens. To date, nearly 7,000 patients in Weifang City alone have benefited from WeDoctor’s Digital Oncology Healthcare Community services.

Currently, local governments across China are intensifying efforts to advance the digital empowerment of grassroots cancer prevention and control systems. The “Implementation Plan for Cancer Prevention and Control under the Healthy China Action (2019–2022)” proposes that by 2022, the cancer prevention and control system should be further improved, the rising trends in cancer incidence and mortality rates should be curbed, and the disease burden on patients should be effectively controlled. It encourages the establishment of cancer specialty alliances in various forms, such as medical consortia, and promotes the active application of technologies like the internet and artificial intelligence to facilitate services such as remote consultations, thereby enhancing diagnostic and treatment capabilities at the grassroots level.

It is reported that the WeDoctor platform has currently connected with more than 7,800 hospitals, covering over 95% of China’s Grade A tertiary hospitals, and includes more than 270,000 registered physicians, 86% of whom are attending physicians or above. Leveraging its abundant expert resources, along with its 27 internet hospitals, more than 30 medical consortium chronic disease service centers, and mobile hospital operations covering 12 provinces and municipalities and 69 counties across China, WeDoctor is establishing a four-tier physician collaboration system for oncology specialties, a primary care-based early screening and detection membership management system for cancer patients, and a diversified payment system integrating basic medical insurance and commercial health insurance. These initiatives provide a solid foundation to support the integrated “online + offline” oncology care services.

Through internet hospitals and a four-tier physician collaboration system, top-tier specialists can directly guide primary care physicians, enabling patients to access high-quality medical services close to home. Meanwhile, WeDoctor’s “Mobile Hospital” initiative effectively supports primary care institutions in conducting early screening and detection, promoting early diagnosis and treatment, thereby significantly enhancing regional cancer prevention and control management capabilities. In terms of payment services, 17 of WeDoctor’s internet hospitals are currently designated as medical insurance providers. Notably, the inclusive supplementary medical insurance product “Qilu Bao,” launched in Jinan, has integrated basic medical insurance with commercial health insurance, providing additional commercial health coverage for local residents enrolled in basic medical insurance. This integration strengthens protection capabilities and effectively alleviates the financial burden of treatment and medication for cancer patients.

“The goal of WeDoctor’s Oncology Health Consortium is to establish an integrated, end-to-end service model encompassing ‘prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, follow-up, and payment,’ thereby improving patients’ health outcomes and alleviating their financial burden,” introduced a relevant representative from WeDoctor. As cancer patients’ awareness and acceptance of online follow-up consultations and whole-course disease management increase, and as online medical insurance payment channels are gradually opened up across various regions, more follow-up patients will shift to online platforms. In the future, leveraging its experience and resources in empowering healthcare reform through digitalization, WeDoctor will collaborate with local governments, medical insurance authorities, healthcare institutions, and domestic and international pharmaceutical and medical device companies to build a digital platform integrating pharmaceuticals, healthcare providers, and patients. It will develop more precise and efficient innovative products, further unlocking the advantages of digital healthcare in terms of accessibility, convenience, and efficiency.