Alibaba Health Launches 'Medicine Delivery at Home' Service on Taobao to Address Chronic Disease Patients' Medication Challenges During Pandemic

To better prevent and control the epidemic of novel coronavirus pneumonia, an increasing number of urban residential communities have implemented closed-off management. However, for patients with chronic diseases who require regular hospital visits for prescription refills, this poses a dual challenge: on one hand, they need to reduce the frequency of visits to medical institutions to lower the risk of cross-infection; on the other hand, travel restrictions have led to gradual shortages of their chronic disease medications at home.

In response to this situation, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned at the earliest opportunity that on February 6, Alibaba Health, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, launched the “Medicine Delivery Without Leaving Home” service on the Taobao app, throughOnline consultation and prescription, with medication delivered to your doorstep: an internet-based healthcare model, enabling patients with chronic diseases to purchase the medications they need with peace of mind without leaving home.

“My parents are about to run out of their daily medications. The residential community is under lockdown management, which is causing great anxiety.” “How can we safely go to the hospital to pick up prescriptions? Or is it possible to consult a doctor and purchase medications online?” “We’ve calculated that the remaining medication will only last for one week. What should we do if we cannot follow the original plan for a follow-up visit?”

Recently, a review of social media platforms such as Weibo and Zhihu by reporters has revealed that, as epidemic prevention and control measures have been tightened in many regions, complaints from patients with chronic diseases regarding difficulties in obtaining prescription medications at home have been increasing day by day.

This phenomenon has clearly drawn the attention of government authorities. The Notice on Strengthening Informatics Support for the Prevention and Control of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia, issued by the National Health Commission, explicitly states that the unique advantages of internet hospitals and online medical consultations should be fully leveraged. It encourages the provision of online follow-up visits for certain common and chronic diseases, as well as medication delivery services, to reduce the risk of cross-infection among other patients during in-person medical visits.

“Middle-aged and elderly individuals inherently have weaker immune systems than younger people, especially those with chronic conditions such as diabetes. Once cross-infection occurs, the risks are significantly higher. We have observed that an increasing number of patients with chronic diseases are facing difficulties in obtaining prescription medications. Leveraging internet technology to assist this group was the driving force behind our launch of this service,” said Liu Henghao, head of Alibaba Health’s “Medication Without Leaving Home” project.

Specifically, users with prescription needs can open the Taobao app on their mobile phones and search for the names of medications for common chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and gout on the homepage. Alternatively, by searching “Buy Medications Without Leaving Home” or “Prescription Services Without Leaving Home” in the app, they can access the relevant service pages.

Patients with chronic diseases need to submit medication requests based on their actual medical conditions, afterAfter multiple processes, including online follow-up consultations and prescription issuance by physicians, as well as prescription review by pharmacists, logistics delivery is then arranged.Meanwhile, by leveraging technologies such as the "Ma Shang Fang Xin" scan-to-verify system, we ensure maximum medication safety for patients.

It is understood that the categories of medicines currently supplied by Alibaba Health cover bothCardiovascular and Cerebrovascular, Respiratory, Hepatobiliary, Gout, Diabetes, and Other Major Chronic Disease Areas, and also covers specialties such as ENT, dermatology, gynecology, and rheumatology and orthopedics, thereby meeting the online consultation and prescription needs of the vast majority of patients with common and chronic diseases.

“We are making every effort to maintain inventory levels and improve related services; however, due to the impact of the pandemic, some regions may experience logistics delays or delivery disruptions. We appreciate your understanding and support,” said Liu Henghao.

In view of the potential peak in patient medication demand during the middle and late stages of the epidemic, Ali Health has implemented real-time inventory monitoring and emergency allocation across multiple warehouses nationwide to ensure uninterrupted drug supply to the greatest extent possible during the critical period of epidemic control.