Tianjin and WeDoctor Forge Digital Health Strategic Partnership to Build a World-Class Healthy City

On January 6, the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government and WeDoctor Group (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “WeDoctor Group”) signed a strategic cooperation agreement on digital health in Tianjin. The two parties agreed to collaborate on building a Digital Health Community, establishing joint drug procurement and pharmaceutical care service centers, and developing an integrated platform for the coordinated reform of medical services, health insurance, and pharmaceutical supply. With this initiative, Tianjin has become the first provincial-level administrative region in China to comprehensively launch digital health construction. This move injects new momentum into Tianjin’s deepening healthcare system reform and the development of its digital health industry, and represents a significant step by the municipal Party committee and government to advance the “Healthy Tianjin Action.”

Zhang Guoqing, Deputy Secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and Mayor of Tianjin, met with Liao Jieyuan, Chairman and CEO of WeDoctor Group, and his delegation, and witnessed the signing ceremony. Lian Maojun, Vice Mayor of Tianjin, and Zhang Jun, Senior Vice President of WeDoctor Group, signed the cooperation agreement on behalf of their respective parties. Meng Qingsong, Secretary-General of the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government; Yang Mingyuan, Deputy Secretary-General; and heads of relevant functional departments—including the Cyberspace Administration of the Tianjin Municipal Committee, the Tianjin Municipal Health Commission, the Tianjin Municipal Market Supervision Commission, the Tianjin Municipal Healthcare Security Administration, the Tianjin Municipal Financial Bureau, the Research Office of the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government, and the Tianjin Municipal Cooperation and Exchange Office—as well as key executives from WeDoctor Group, attended the signing ceremony.

Under the guidance of the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government, WeDoctor will establish an Internet General Hospital based on physical hospitals to provide Tianjin residents with one-stop medical and health services anchored in electronic health records (EHRs). Upon its establishment, the Internet General Hospital will innovate online-offline diagnosis and treatment models as well as family doctor contracting services, accelerate the development of medical consortia and medical alliances, and serve as a convenient portal for healthcare access and health management for nearly 16 million people in Tianjin, empowering citizens to “know their own health and manage their own well-being.”

Previously, WeDoctor Group had entered into a special cooperation agreement with Tianjin Municipality, leveraging its digital health platform to support “Internet + Health Poverty Alleviation” initiatives in areas targeted by Tianjin’s paired assistance programs, and donated WeDoctor Mobile Hospitals valued at RMB 30 million. Currently, these initiatives have been successively launched in regions such as Gansu and Qinghai.

While promoting innovative public welfare services in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and medical insurance, this collaboration will also strongly drive the development of Tianjin’s digital health industry. The World Health Organization recently released its Global Strategy on Digital Health, positioning digital health as the most promising sector in the era of the industrial internet. The establishment of the Tianjin Digital Health Community Demonstration Zone provides substantial application scenarios for the implementation of the digital health industry. Leveraging its digital health platform, Tianjin will attract industry players in innovative medical devices—such as medical artificial intelligence, genetic testing, and assisted reproductive technologies—as well as health finance, fostering their clustering in the city and thereby advancing the growth of Tianjin’s digital economy and health industry.

The Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government attach great importance to the development of the medical and health industry. The Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Healthy Tianjin and the Implementation Plan for the Healthy Tianjin Action have put forward clear requirements for developing internet-based health services and advancing the health industry. The conclusion of this cooperation and the introduction of the digital platform will further accelerate the development of Tianjin’s digital health industry and the realization of the goals for Healthy Tianjin.

To strengthen the top-level design of Tianjin’s “Digital Health” initiative, Zhan Jifu, the key architect of the “Sanming Healthcare Reform” and current Party Group Secretary and Director of the Standing Committee of the Sanming Municipal People’s Congress in Fujian Province, will be appointed as Chief Advisor to the Leading Group for Tianjin’s “Digital Health” Project, jointly advancing the development of Healthy Tianjin.

During the discussion, Zhang Guoqing expressed his hope that WeDoctor Group would leverage its platform advantages to attract, nurture, and aggregate upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, thereby playing a greater role in the reform of the healthcare sector.

“Digitalization is becoming a new engine for healthcare reform,” said Liao Jieyuan. Under the leadership of the Tianjin Municipal Government, WeDoctor Group will accelerate the release of public welfare benefits from digital health innovations in Tianjin. In the future, a cluster of upstream and downstream innovative forces in the digital health industry will converge here, helping Tianjin become a hub for digital health and an international-level healthy city.