Ping An Good Doctor Enhances Specialty Service Capabilities with Dermatology Revenue Up 30%
Skin diseases are among the conditions most suitable for online consultations, as preliminary diagnoses can be made by reviewing patients’ medical histories and visual photographs of affected areas. This characteristic has laid the foundation for a new model of online dermatological care. According to the latest report from McKinsey & Company, a globally renowned consulting firm, titled “New Retail Trends and Outlook in Pharmaceuticals – McKinsey Report,” dermatology has become one of the mainstream specialties in online healthcare, ranking among the top five most consulted departments. To better serve the growing demand for online dermatology consultations, Ping An Health Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (stock abbreviation: “Ping An Good Doctor,” 1833.HK) officially launched its specialized dermatology initiative early this year. As one of the key specialties in the company’s comprehensive specialization strategy, this initiative aims to provide users with more compassionate and personalized internet-based healthcare services.
Ping An Health’s Dermatology Specialty, centered around its specialized care hubs, integrates both in-house and external physician resources on the platform to deliver one-stop service solutions for users. To date, the dermatology specialty covers online consultations, prescription issuance, and product provisioning within internet-based healthcare scenarios. Additionally, it offers surgical treatment options—such as for hemangiomas, pigmented nevi, vascular nevi, and hair transplantation—through renowned external specialists, providing professional services for patients requiring offline treatment.
The development and operation of dermatology specialties have adopted an internet-based approach, evolving from a localized model that relied on geographic proximity and selected advantageous specialties based on local market conditions, to a specialty-centric model that leverages the internet to reach physicians in any location. By capitalizing on extensive physician resources, robust medical capabilities, and a comprehensive offline network of collaborative healthcare partners, we provide dermatology patients with warm, 24/7 healthcare services, including online consultations, medication purchases, offline appointment scheduling, referrals, and pharmaceutical delivery.
In addition to its in-house medical team, Ping An Health continuously recruits external physicians and renowned medical experts. These external doctors serve as the clinical backbone to address patients’ core needs, while specialized studios led by distinguished experts focus on specific diseases and specialties, thereby establishing a reputation for rigorous, professional medical care. It is reported that Academician Liao Wanqing from Changzheng Hospital, widely acclaimed as a “scientific luminary and esteemed military physician,” joined the Ping An Health APP last year, becoming its first “Chief Expert in Internet Dermatology.” One patient, who had suffered from chronic pruritus for five years, successfully achieved full recovery after receiving treatment from Academician Liao via the Ping An Health APP. Beyond Academician Liao’s strong endorsement of Ping An Health’s value, other notable specialists—including Dr. Zhang Jianglin, Chief Physician of the Department of Dermatology at Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, and Dr. Xi Liyan, Chief Physician of the Department of Dermatology at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University—have also joined Ping An Health’s roster of renowned dermatology experts. The company’s dermatology specialist team continues to expand.
Data shows that by the end of 2020, 295 domestically renowned top-tier specialists had signed on to join the Ping An Health APP. Among them, 175 physicians collaborated with Ping An Health to establish “Renowned Physician Studios,” focusing on specific diseases and specialties, and covering the entire process from pre-diagnosis to intra-diagnosis and post-diagnosis, thereby providing users with precise and trustworthy expert diagnostic and treatment plans. These Renowned Physician Studios now include authoritative experts such as leaders of national key disciplines, principal investigators of major national pharmaceutical and medical projects, committee members of various professional associations, and chief physicians from top-ranked hospitals nationwide. Under Ping An Health’s initiative to strengthen its dermatology specialty, hospitals with strong regional characteristics are also expected to further expand their service reach online, benefiting users across China; in response to changes in patients’ conditions, hospitals at all levels can provide faster responses and offer solutions.
For Ping An Health’s professional in-house medical team, collaboration with specialized hospitals significantly bolsters the development and operation of specialized care, gradually integrating online and offline medical resources. This enables physicians to engage with a broader range of real-world cases, thereby enhancing their specialized diagnostic and treatment capabilities as well as clinical experience. It also creates more opportunities for training and academic exchange, opening up pathways for career advancement. For patients, this means more convenient direct access to renowned medical experts, allowing them to receive professional and authoritative diagnostic and treatment services from home, along with comprehensive professional support throughout the entire care journey, including follow-up visits and disease management.
Since the launch of its specialized development initiative, Ping An Health’s dermatology specialty has continuously enhanced its consultation capacity, with the average daily number of consultations increasing by 12.9% and average daily revenue rising by approximately 30% year-on-year. By delivering high-value, precise medical services, it has further explored opportunities for monetizing healthcare services.
Ping An Health is advancing the development of its dermatology specialty, accompanied by a series of technological upgrades. On January 1, 2021, Ping An Health’s AI-powered skin analysis tool was officially launched, enabling users to access integrated online services for skin type assessment and disease detection through the Ping An Health app. Currently, this tool covers 13 types of skin conditions and 30 dermatological diseases, providing professional and convenient internet-based services related to skin health. It supports the entire patient journey, including self-assessment, online consultations, and medication guidance.
Taking skin disease detection as an example, users need only take and upload a photo of the affected area after accessing the tool. Within seconds, the system provides an assessment based on matching algorithms that incorporate factors such as gender and age. Furthermore, the AI-powered skin care tool offers medical consultation recommendations by leveraging data on typical symptoms, etiologies, diagnoses, and treatments, alongside clinical case studies from renowned physicians. Based on the diagnostic results, the Ping An Health App provides targeted referrals to specialist experts, thereby meeting the high-frequency and diverse needs of its massive internet user base.
Beyond dermatology, Ping An Health is accelerating the development of specialized departments and disease-specific clinics in internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, and traditional Chinese medicine. Taking gynecology—a specialty that has garnered significant attention—as an example, since initiating its specialized operational strategy, Ping An Health’s gynecology department has leveraged vast volumes of professional consultation data to further subcategorize conditions based on the characteristics of obstetric and gynecological diseases as well as user profiles. The system routinely tracks the top 10 most frequently consulted gynecological conditions and enhances precise service capabilities for these cases, such as pregnancy-related issues, irregular menstruation, and chronic vaginitis.
Taking cervical HPV infection, a common gynecological condition, as an example, the treatment risks for such conditions are relatively low. Ping An Health identifies patients requiring treatment through professional health education and provides them with precise assistance, achieving a viral clearance rate as high as 90%. This model not only enables users to access more professional, efficient, and targeted services but also drives revenue growth in specialized medical departments. While consultation volumes maintain steady growth, it has also spurred increases in prescription and product sales. Statistical data shows that after implementing specialized department management, related prescription revenue rose by approximately 35%. In the future, Ping An Health will continue to develop specialized service packages for specific gynecological conditions, offering warm, one-stop, end-to-end services.
Ping An Health has achieved coverage across 23 medical specialties, delivering services through diverse modalities including text-and-image consultations, voice calls, video sessions, and vital sign measurements. Leveraging its proprietary “Dual-Doctor Model,” the platform enables online consultations with top-tier specialists from across China, while Ping An Health’s full-time physicians assist these specialists with pre-consultation preparations and post-consultation follow-ups. This approach ensures rapid response to user inquiries and comprehensively enhances the efficiency of specialist consultations. Users can either select specialists in specific fields suited to their individual needs via the Ping An Health APP or receive precise matching with experts proficient in relevant areas through consultation with triage physicians.
Through its specialty-focused development, Ping An Good Doctor is delivering more convenient, efficient, professional, and authoritative high-quality online diagnosis and treatment services to a greater number of families. For Ping An Good Doctor, continuously strengthening its in-house medical team, expanding its external physician network, and actively recruiting renowned medical experts are crucial steps in solidifying its healthcare service capabilities. As the pace of specialty-focused operations accelerates and medical resources continue to expand, Ping An Good Doctor will further upgrade to achieve comprehensive “Internet-based specialization.” By leveraging refined traffic management, the company aims to ensure precise patient triage, accurate service delivery, and meticulous operational management, thereby facilitating zero-distance, efficient interactions between leading specialists across various disciplines and hundreds of millions of users, ultimately enhancing its core competitiveness in the internet healthcare sector.