Medlinker Establishes Academic Committee with Academicians Cheng Shujun and Liu Lisheng as Chief Advisors to Advance Standardized Internet Healthcare

On June 16, Medlinker officially announced the establishment of its Academic Committee, with Cheng Shujun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a renowned expert in tumor etiology, and Liu Lisheng, former president of the World Hypertension League and a distinguished cardiologist, serving as chief advisory experts. The inaugural cohort of experts on the Medlinker Academic Committee also includes dozens of discipline leaders and professorial experts who have dedicated many years to their respective fields, covering multiple disciplines such as oncology, endocrinology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular medicine, and ophthalmology.

Unveiling Ceremony of the Medlinker Academic Committee (From left to right: Cheng Shujun, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Liu Lisheng, Former President of the World Hypertension League; Wang Shirui, Founder and CEO of Medlinker; Liu Chunmei, Vice President of Medlinker)

Looking back, in April this year, Medlinker issued an internal letter announcing the upgrade of its Chronic Disease Management Center into a Department of Academic Disciplines, subdivided into Division I, Division II, and Division III, with the heads of all three divisions reporting directly to CEO Wang Shirui. Now, as Medlinker takes another step forward, it is hard not to associate the establishment of its Academic Committee with its earlier strategic planning and development.

Why Establish the WeDoctor Academic Committee Today? Perhaps we can quote Wang Shirui, CEO of WeDoctor, from his keynote address at the conference: “For internet hospitals to achieve genuine and sustainable growth, standardized and authoritative disease management protocols are essential. After the initial accumulation of advantageous resources in the digital space, there is an urgent need today for internet healthcare to integrate with authoritative medical knowledge, thereby further strengthening disciplinary development.”

The in-depth engagement with internet healthcare has further heightened Medlinker’s awareness of the importance of discipline development. Given the complexity and challenges inherent in this endeavor, the company proactively sought dialogue with leading medical authorities at an early stage. The establishment of its Academic Committee is thus a natural culmination of these efforts.

Medlinker’s emphasis on discipline construction is not a recent development. As early as 2018, Medlinker focused its business on internet-based chronic disease management, starting with liver diseases, and drove its strategy through discipline construction to explore safe and effective out-of-hospital management solutions for each disease type. At the inaugural meeting of the Academic Committee, clinical experts from various fields—including diabetes, oncology, and HIV/AIDS—shared multiple research achievements in internet healthcare disciplines in which Medlinker participated.

Expert Members of the Medlink Academic Committee

Xiao Jianzhong, Director of the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, introduced the “Expert Consensus on Online Diabetes Management in Internet Hospitals,” which was developed with the participation of the Medical Consortium. As the first expert consensus of its kind in China, it was released this May. The consensus provides the first clear definition of online diabetes management within internet hospitals and establishes standardized procedures for such management. It emphasizes stratified management tailored to different patient groups, specifying corresponding management content and control targets, developing differentiated follow-up plans, clarifying criteria for bidirectional referral between online and offline settings, and defining the composition and responsibilities of the online management team.

Bi Xinyu, Chief Physician of the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery at the Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, shared updates on the post-discharge internet-based follow-up management project for cancer patients conducted in collaboration with Yilian. Launched last October, the project will soon officially release the Expert Guidance on Internet-Based Management of Common Drug-Related Adverse Reactions in Patients with Liver Cancer. This guidance aims to provide practical recommendations for managing adverse reactions that may occur during systemic therapy for liver cancer patients outside the hospital setting, thereby improving their quality of life and maximizing treatment benefits.

The Expert Consensus on the Management of Internet-Based Diagnosis and Treatment for HIV/AIDS, led by the Information Exchange and Digital Prevention and Control Working Committee of the China Association for STD and AIDS Prevention and Control and with the participation of Medlinker, was also launched at the conference. It aims to deeply integrate the internet with HIV/AIDS prevention and control efforts, standardize internet-based diagnosis, treatment, and patient management for HIV/AIDS, and provide guidance for the better application of internet healthcare in HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

Launch of the “Expert Consensus on the Management of Internet-Based Diagnosis and Treatment for HIV/AIDS” (From left to right: Liu Hui, Chair of the Information Exchange and Digital Prevention and Control Working Committee of the China Association for STD and AIDS Prevention and Control; Ma Ping, Director of the Second Department of Infectious Diseases at Tianjin Second People’s Hospital; Wang Xinlun, Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Association for STD and AIDS Prevention and Control; Hao Yang, President of the China Association for STD and AIDS Prevention and Control; Wang Shirui, Founder and CEO of Medlinker; Sun Lijun, Chief Physician and Director of the Outpatient Department of the Center for Infectious Diseases at Beijing You’an Hospital, Capital Medical University; Liu Chunmei, Vice President of Medlinker)

During the pandemic, internet healthcare, serving as the “second front” in the fight against COVID-19, gained further recognition due to its high efficiency and low risk. The demand for internet healthcare services, cultivated during the pandemic, has continued to grow. Amid rapid development, the industry also faces certain challenges, such as how to ensure the quality of internet healthcare services and how to better regulate internet hospitals. In 2021, the Report on the Work of the Government proposed for the first time to promote the standardized development of “Internet + Healthcare,” signaling heightened expectations and strengthened regulatory oversight for the industry. This requires enterprises to embrace “standardization” as a pathway to enter a new stage of high-quality development.

 Address by Wang Shirui, Founder and CEO of Medlinker

“Leveraging the advantages of internet hospitals—such as convenience, accessibility, and intelligence—to ensure the standardization and effectiveness of medical services, while safeguarding the vital interests of both patients and healthcare providers, is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed,” stated Wang Shirui, CEO of Medlinker, in his opening remarks. The establishment of this Academic Committee represents more than just a deeper exploration of internet-based healthcare; by providing expert consensus on disease management in internet healthcare, it also serves to share and release Medlinker’s accumulated experience in the field, thereby giving back to and fostering industry development.

Medlinker has assembled hundreds of thousands of verified physicians, covering multiple chronic disease areas including liver disease, diabetes, HIV, oncology, nephrology, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, pediatrics, mental health, and respiratory conditions such as asthma. In the course of providing patients with a range of effective, affordable, and accessible out-of-hospital chronic disease management services—such as treatment recommendations, evaluation of therapeutic outcomes, electronic prescriptions, medication guidance, psychological counseling, and lifestyle interventions—Medlinker has accumulated extensive experience in building online patient management systems, standardizing out-of-hospital care processes, and advancing disciplinary development. With the establishment of its Academic Committee and the dissemination of expert consensus on internet-based disease management, Medlinker will further promote the standardized development of the industry, empowering physicians while better serving patients.

For Yilian, the future will involve collaborating with experts from the Academic Committee to explore the development of internet healthcare disciplines. By continuously integrating online and offline medical resources, Yilian aims to further advance expert consensus on disease management in internet healthcare, thereby leveraging the supportive role of “Internet + Healthcare” in disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. This effort will facilitate whole-lifecycle patient management and help standardize and promote the overall development of the industry.