Annet Innovation Empowers Luohu Internet Hospital in the Fight Against COVID-19

Compassion Amidst the Pandemic. The launch of our Internet Hospital not only reaffirms our commitment to the goals of the Luohu healthcare reform, but also allows the general public to witness the continuously improving medical capabilities and services of the Luohu Hospital Group. Following our victory in the fight against the epidemic, we will continue to expand the scope of services offered by the Internet Hospital and extend its reach.

——Sun Xizhuo, President of Luohu Hospital Group

Ms. Pei, a 59-year-old resident of Huangbeiling in Luohu District, Shenzhen, underwent lumbar fusion surgery at Luohu District People’s Hospital in late 2019. As per medical advice, she was scheduled for a follow-up visit one and a half months post-surgery. However, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Pei feared the risk of cross-infection if she visited the hospital. On February 11, she conducted an online consultation through the Internet Hospital of Luohu Hospital Group and booked a mobile examination vehicle to perform imaging tests at the Huangbeiling Community Health Service Center. This approach spared her the hassle of travel and allowed her to complete the entire follow-up process right at her doorstep.

According to Chen Jialin, Vice President of Luohu District Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital and Director of the Group’s Information Center, since the launch of the Luohu Hospital Group’s Internet Hospital on February 4, a total of over 9,200 consultations had been conducted by February 28. The peak daily volume approached 900 consultations, with an average of more than 400 per day. Over 3,600 prescriptions were issued, and more than 3,000 orders for medication delivery (including decoction services for traditional Chinese medicine) were shipped directly to patients’ homes. Notably, some of these patients were from outside Guangdong Province, and all key metrics continue to rise rapidly.

In the critical battle against the epidemic, internet hospitals are increasingly demonstrating their “hardcore” advantages.

12:00 noon, February 4, 2020: Luohu District People's Hospital.

The courier efficiently collected the medications from the pharmacy, packed them, and loaded them onto the vehicle.

At 5:00 PM, the courier will make another delivery to ensure that medications reach a group of special patients as soon as possible—these are the “early adopters” who have tried online prescription services through the Internet Hospital of Luohu Hospital Group.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, amid a severe epidemic prevention and control situation, the Information Department of Luohu Hospital Group canceled their holidays and returned to work overtime. Within just a few days, the Pharmacy Department established an express delivery channel. Meanwhile, strategic partner Shenzhen Antai Innovation Technology Co., Ltd., a local high-tech enterprise in Shenzhen, accelerated its research and development efforts, going all out...

With the collaboration of multiple parties, the Luohu Hospital Group Internet Hospital was rapidly launched.

Amid the pandemic, the advantages of “contactless diagnosis and treatment” offered by internet hospitals have been fully demonstrated. They not only provided timely assistance to patients with common fever and chronic diseases in seeking medical care and renewing prescriptions during the outbreak, thereby reducing the risk of cross-infection associated with in-hospital visits, but also effectively mitigated infection risks for healthcare workers—enabling physicians and patients to conduct consultations, referrals, and medical record discussions via mobile devices.

“Innovative Technology and Thoughtful Service Earn Unanimous Praise from Patients and Doctors: Luohu Hospital Group’s ‘Shenzhen-Style’ Hard-Hitting Pandemic Response Sets a Benchmark for Healthcare Reform”

“The core demand of patients is to find doctors. Nowadays, when patients visit Luohu Hospital in person, they can add doctors as friends by scanning a QR code with WeChat, thereby establishing exclusive internet hospital consultation rooms. Within these rooms, patients and doctors can chat just like on WeChat, and all processes—including consultations, prescription issuance, payment, and scheduling of medical technology examinations—are completed in a one-stop manner,” introduced Li Taihe, Product Director at Antai Innovation.

Improving patient experience by making the system simple and user-friendly is also a key focus for hospitals. However, adopting WeChat Mini Programs as the patient-facing interface has largely alleviated this concern. The hospital has assigned 20 online customer service representatives who receive hundreds of inquiries daily, yet issues related to usability barriers are rare.

Paper-based medical records, disorganized laboratory and diagnostic test reports, and film images that are difficult to carry and store... To address these challenges, Antai Innovation leverages medical big data technology to create personalized “health records” for each patient, encompassing historical diagnosis and treatment records, examination reports, electronic film images, and more. Seeking medical consultation is now as simple as having a mobile phone.

“Difficulty in parking, long queues, patients sometimes having to make multiple trips to the hospital, or spending an entire day at the hospital for a single consultation… Only by resolving these issues can an internet hospital be deemed successful.” This was the requirement put forth by President Sun Xizhuo during the initial discussions on the construction strategy.

With the simultaneous launch across six hospitals and 31 community health centers within the Luohu Hospital Group, along with the integration of their business processes, this may represent the first successful exploration in China of a large medical group leveraging an internet hospital to streamline operations within a medical consortium.

Patients can place orders online and schedule examinations at any hospital or community health center within the group. Additionally, four mobile examination vehicles are available to visit residential areas across the city, providing blood draw, ultrasound, X-ray, and electrocardiogram (ECG) services.

During the pandemic, all departments of the Luohu Hospital Group’s Internet Hospital provided free online consultations to patients, and masks were given as a complimentary gift with each prescription. Meanwhile, the hospital also covered the consultation fees for physicians out of its own funds.

Chen Jialin, Director of the Information Center at Luohu Hospital Group, stated, “As a government-run public hospital, we must provide high-quality medical services to residents in our jurisdiction during the pandemic, alleviating their concerns and fears about visiting hospitals. Beyond fever clinics and epidemic prevention and control, there is an even greater demand for routine diagnostic and treatment services. We also hope these initiatives will help patients become accustomed to online consultations.”

More than 1,100 doctors affiliated with the Luohu Hospital Group have registered on the online platform, with the number expected to reach 2,000 in the near future. The physician-facing component of this new system is a customized app that offers rich functionality while remaining easy to use, resulting in minimal complaints from doctors regarding its usability.

How Was a Highly Popular App Among Physicians Born?

Li Taihe, Product Director at Shenzhen Antai Innovation Technology Co., Ltd., believes that the simultaneous launch of data, workflows, and management systems can transform a smartphone into an all-in-one workstation for physicians.

On the Luohu Hospital Group’s physician-side app, doctors can access complete medical records of online patients at any time, including original DICOM images, to ensure high-quality online consultations. They can also conduct remote consultations, referrals, case discussions, and remote ward rounds, thereby facilitating medical consortium operations.

The integration of non-clinical data—such as online payments, scheduling for diagnostic and technical services, out-of-hospital pharmacy operations, and logistics—not only enhances the patient care experience but also provides essential data support for hospital operational management. This achieves seamless online-offline business integration, facilitates uninterrupted coordination between service providers and regulators, and ensures full-process traceability of medical quality control.

President Sun Xizhuo stated, “While the epidemic is ruthless, there is warmth in human compassion. The launch of the Internet Hospital not only enables us to reaffirm our commitment to the goals of the Luohu healthcare reform, but also allows the general public to once again witness the enhanced medical capabilities and service quality of the Luohu Hospital Group, including improvements in medical quality, clinical standards, and safety assurances. The Internet Hospital serves as a platform; after achieving victory in the fight against the epidemic, we will continue to expand its service offerings and extend the reach of our services.”

As a cardiologist, President Sun Xizhuo also personally conducts consultations on the internet hospital platform, having completed nearly 20 online consultations and prescribed medication renewals for some patients.

Regarding the advantages of the Luohu Hospital Group’s Internet Hospital, Chen Jialin believes that its strengths primarily lie in the group’s execution capabilities and integrated management. The hospital boasts a team of core professionals—including pharmacists, laboratory technologists, radiologists, and psychological counselors—who serve patients. Additionally, it benefits from robust technical support provided by its strategic partner, Shenzhen Antai Innovation Technology Co., Ltd., and the hospital’s own informatics team.

In the strategic plan of Luohu Hospital Group, the Internet Hospital is expected to evolve into the group’s seventh hospital once it reaches a certain scale. Supported by physical hospitals and equipped with a specialized management and operations team, it aims to attract off-site and overseas physicians to practice on the platform, gain greater recognition from loyal patients both domestically and internationally, and develop into a large-scale, influential online hospital.