Wangyi Alliance Files for IPO: Building the 'Taobao of Healthcare' with 300 Hospitals and 700+ Doctors Onboard
“Without the participation of small and medium-sized medical institutions, China’s internet healthcare sector will certainly have no future.” This statement reflects Liu Keyuan, founder and chairman of the Online Medical Alliance, on the future development trends of internet healthcare.
According to statistical data from the National Health Commission, as of the end of November 2019, there were 1.014 million medical and health institutions nationwide, including 34,000 hospitals, 960,000 primary care medical and health institutions, and 20,000 other institutions and specialized public health institutions. Compared with the end of November 2018, the number of medical and health institutions nationwide increased by 9,489, with hospitals increasing by 1,496, primary care medical and health institutions increasing by 9,560, and specialized public health institutions decreasing by 1,788. It is understood that among China’s medical and health institutions, small-scale facilities such as village clinics, township health centers, community health service centers, clinics, and outpatient departments account for more than 95% of the total number of medical institutions in the country.
“In response to the public’s routine healthcare needs, large hospitals must expedite the launch of internet-based diagnosis and treatment services; more importantly, small and medium-sized medical institutions should also adopt these services.” To this end, the Online Doctor Alliance has developed an Internet Healthcare Cluster Platform to assist small and medium-sized medical institutions in providing internet-based diagnosis and treatment services and establishing internet hospitals.
On February 7, the Xuzhuang Town Central Health Center in Shanting District, Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province, issued a notice requiring all village clinics to launch online outpatient services. With technical support from the Online Doctor Alliance, the Xuzhuang Town Central Health Center and its 57 subordinate village clinics successfully launched online outpatient services within the following two days, providing villagers with access to remote medical consultations.
Liu Keyuan, founder and chairman of the Internet Doctor Alliance, told VCBeat that the alliance is committed to providing mobile internet diagnosis and treatment systems to a wide range of medical institutions—from tertiary Grade A hospitals down to village health clinics—with a particular focus on small and medium-sized institutions that have low levels of informatization and limited financial resources.
The Online Doctor Alliance was established in Shijingshan District, Beijing, in November 2016, marking a new venture for Liu Keyuan following his multiple successful entrepreneurial endeavors.
Since graduating from the Central Party School in 1990, Liu Keyuan has worked at central state-owned enterprises and several private firms, accumulating extensive experience in corporate management. Beginning in 2013, as a co-founder, he successively established Beijing Jingdu Children’s Hospital, Beijing East District Children’s Hospital, and Beijing Future Children’s Hospital. Two years later, riding the wave of the internet, Liu founded the Online Medical Alliance, dedicated to leveraging mobile internet technologies to reshape traditional medical diagnosis and treatment services.
With years of hospital management experience, Liu Keyuan has become highly proficient in medical services and operational models. During this process, he also identified significant pain points in the development of physical hospitals.
“Large hospitals are bustling with patients, while small ones are nearly deserted. This is a true reflection of the imbalance in medical resources in China,” said Liu Keyuan. Currently, hospitals and physicians with advanced diagnostic and treatment capabilities are relatively concentrated in first-tier cities. The uneven geographic distribution of medical resources has widened the management gap in doctor-patient communication. A sharp contradiction exists between the limited medical capabilities in remote areas and the strong demand for diagnosis and treatment among the population.
Small and medium-sized medical institutions constitute the backbone of China’s healthcare system, yet their development is significantly constrained by low levels of informatization and limited influence. The emergence of “Internet Healthcare” will provide these institutions with essential tools and means to expand their service reach and improve efficiency. However, due to high capital requirements and costly technology development, the traditional model of purchasing third-party information systems to develop Internet Healthcare solutions is clearly not viable for such institutions.
“To alleviate the strain on medical resources and facilitate accessible, local healthcare, we need to connect small and medium-sized medical institutions by equipping them with internet-based healthcare tools and methods, thereby establishing links with patients. This connection extends beyond mere consultations to encompass the entire continuum of medical services.”
With the introduction of new regulations on internet-based diagnosis and treatment, 2019 marked a pivotal point for the concentrated emergence of internet hospitals. Liu Keyuan believes that it is of very limited significance for each hospital to establish its own separate online hospital. If various medical institutions are integrated onto a single platform, resources and medical processes will be reallocated and reengineered, thereby consolidating more healthcare service resources and enabling patients to choose doctors from internet hospitals according to their needs.
Liu Keyuan subsequently integrated the concept of e-commerce into healthcare, proposing the notion of “Medical Taobao.” In essence, Medical Taobao is the Taobao.com of the healthcare sector. “Doctors and hospitals are suppliers on the ‘Medical Taobao’ platform, patients are demanders, and what is traded is medical services.”
On May 31, 2017, the Online Medical Alliance entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the Beijing Medical Doctor Association and the Beijing Pharmacists Association. The Beijing Medical Doctor Association and the Beijing Pharmacists Association are respectively responsible for verifying the registered physicians and pharmacists of the Online Medical Alliance. In addition, experts and renowned doctors from major hospitals in Beijing can join the Online Medical Alliance under their real names and, upon verification by these two associations, become online physicians of the alliance. Currently, the Online Medical Alliance has approximately 200 registered physicians in Beijing, all affiliated with large Grade A tertiary hospitals such as Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking University-affiliated hospitals, the PLA General Hospital (301 Hospital), and Jishuitan Hospital.
After two years of meticulous preparation, the Online Doctor Alliance officially commenced operations in August 2019.
Leveraging cloud-based Hospital Information Systems (HIS) as its technological foundation, this platform transforms traditional physician workstations into mobile ones, enabling doctors to deliver medical services to patients anytime and anywhere via the internet. Patients can register and make payments online, consult with doctors face-to-face through internet-based video systems, receive online diagnoses and electronic prescriptions, and complete payment and medication pickup online, ensuring a highly efficient and convenient experience.
The Online Medical Alliance supports two types of services: online medical consultations and internet hospitals. Internet hospitals are further categorized into fully online internet hospitals and integrated online-offline internet hospitals connected to Hospital Information Systems (HIS).
Physical medical institutions may submit online applications to the Online Doctor Alliance. Upon passing the qualification review, an online hospital is automatically generated instantly and becomes immediately available for use. For small and medium-sized medical institutions lacking the capacity to independently develop internet-based diagnosis and treatment services, the Online Doctor Alliance provides free construction of internet diagnosis and treatment functions or internet hospital platforms. This includes free development, free provision and integration with various offline Hospital Information System (HIS) interfaces, free upgrades and maintenance, as well as waiver of the majority of usage fees.
The platform’s scope of services covers the entire healthcare delivery process, from appointment scheduling, patient registration, real-name verification, and facial recognition to outpatient consultations, multidisciplinary consultations, pharmacy services, and laboratory and diagnostic testing. The Online Medical Alliance also supports systems for personal health records, online payments, CA-based electronic signatures, online prescription review, and electronic medical records (EMR). Notably, the Online Medical Alliance accommodates diverse business models, providing internet hospitals with independent websites, as well as dedicated mobile apps and WeChat mini-programs.
On January 24, 2020, with its independently developed mobile internet diagnosis and treatment system, Web Doctor Alliance assisted Qingdao New Sunshine Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in passing the review by the Internet Medical Service Supervision Platform of the Shandong Provincial Health Commission. This was the first internet hospital to be supported by the Web Doctor Alliance’s system and approved through a provincial-level regulatory platform, marking a significant milestone in Web Doctor Alliance’s strategic deployment of internet hospitals.
Quality supervision of services is key to internet-based diagnosis and treatment. Liu Keyuan introduced that the Online Doctor Alliance has four steps in medical service quality supervision: first, carry out routine internal supervisory measures such as prescription reviews and medical record inspections; second, audio and video recordings are made throughout the entire diagnosis and treatment process to facilitate supervision and avoid doctor-patient disputes; third, patients can provide online reviews to create constraints; fourth, all information is uploaded in real time to the internet healthcare regulatory authorities.
Currently, the Wangyi Alliance platform has onboarded 300 medical institutions and signed contracts with over 700 physicians, along with nearly 1,000 consultation experts, completing more than 5,000 diagnosis and treatment cases.
It is worth noting that on October 22, 2019, the Online Medical Alliance and the Seoul Association in Beijing signed a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly build the Korean Online Medical Platform. The platform primarily serves Koreans residing in China, and secondarily, Chinese citizens with demands for Korean medical services. In 2018, statistical data showed that Chinese patients seeking Korean medical care accounted for approximately 20% of China’s outbound medical tourism market. “This platform brings Korean hospitals and doctors online. Patients can consult Korean physicians directly through the platform, reducing travel time and improving the overall medical experience,” said Liu Keyuan.
Liu Keyuan revealed that the Online Medical Alliance will ramp up its efforts in 2020, with plans to increase the number of onboarded medical institutions to 8,000 and aim to benefit 2 million patients. To attract high-end technical talent, accelerate technology development, and strengthen online and offline marketing promotion, the Online Medical Alliance is currently conducting its Series A financing round. Interested institutions are requested to contact the financing assistant, Xiao Yun, at: DongMai_Investent.