Guigang City and WeDoctor Launch Guangxi's First Digital Health Community
Guangxi’s Digital Health Sector Accelerates onto the Fast Track. On November 8, the 2019 Guangxi Big Health Industry Summit officially opened in Nanning. At the opening ceremony, the People’s Government of Guigang City signed a cooperation agreement with WeDoctor Group to jointly establish the Guigang Digital Health Community (hereinafter referred to as the “Health Community”). As the first digital health community implemented in the region, the Guigang Health Community will connect medical institutions at the municipal, county, township, and village levels through a citywide unified digital platform, promoting integrated development across healthcare services, pharmaceuticals, medical insurance, and elderly care, thereby fostering the clustering of the digital health industry in Guigang.
Guigang Municipal Government and WeDoctor Group Partner to Co-establish a Digital Health Community
Leveraging the all-around open development pattern of “southward expansion, northward linkage, eastward integration, and westward cooperation,” Guangxi has in recent years fully capitalized on its resource advantages in the big health industry, resulting in unprecedentedly strong momentum in the development of both the digital economy and the big health sector. The Autonomous Region has successively issued documents such as the Guangxi Digital Economy Development Plan (2018–2025), the Implementation Plan for Promoting the Development of “Internet + Medical Health” in Guangxi, and the Implementation Plan for Healthy Guangxi Initiatives, to foster the integrated development of the digital economy and the medical healthcare industry. It is projected that by 2020, the total scale of Guangxi’s health industry will reach approximately RMB 400 billion.
At the opening ceremony, Lu Xinshu, Secretary of the CPC Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Committee, pointed out in his address that Guangxi possesses unique advantages for developing the big health industry, and that fostering this sector is a strategic layout for Guangxi to achieve high-quality development. Chen Wu, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Committee and Chairman of the Autonomous Region, emphasized that Guangxi will actively explore new technologies, new business formats, and new models to seek new pathways for the development of the big health industry.
As a national pilot city for smart cities, Guigang has seized the opportunities of digitalization ahead of others by partnering with WeDoctor Group, an internationally leading digital health unicorn. It has taken the lead in the region to launch the construction of the Guigang Digital Health Community, driving the digital upgrade of healthcare services across the region and better safeguarding the health of the city’s 5.5 million residents.
It is understood that the Guigang Health Consortium will leverage a digital platform to vertically connect medical institutions at the municipal, county, township, and village levels, while horizontally integrating healthcare services, pharmaceuticals, health insurance, and elderly care. This initiative aims to ultimately enhance regional diagnostic and treatment capabilities, improve residents’ health outcomes, and reduce the growth rate of health insurance expenditures.
Upon project launch, the Guigang Health Community will establish the “WeDoctor Guigang Internet Hospital,” providing residents with services such as appointment registration, online follow-up consultations, remote consultations, and remote medical education. It will create a family-oriented “Healthy Guigang” portal to guide residents in effective health management. Building on data interoperability, a four-tier digital diagnosis and treatment system spanning city, county, township, and village levels will be constructed to comprehensively enhance the city’s overall clinical care capabilities. Furthermore, new service models such as joint drug procurement consortia, smart medical insurance, and dual-setting elderly care will be actively explored.
To advance development, Guigang City has established the “Guigang City Health Community Leadership Group” to facilitate project implementation. “The Leadership Group will actively promote construction and implementation with a service philosophy of ‘immediate action,’” pointed out Wei Yan, Deputy Mayor of Guigang City. The digital health community will drive upstream and downstream enterprises to establish operations in Guigang’s industrial parks. In the future, guided by a digital health industry platform, all parties will jointly build a “Digital Health Community” demonstration zone for the big health industry, integrating medical care, health management, wellness, rehabilitation, innovative products, and innovative services.
“Digital health is the broadest track in the future digital economy. It is accelerating the transformation of how the healthcare industry operates and how medical services are delivered,” said Liao Jieyuan, Chairman and CEO of WeDoctor Group. Starting with the Guigang Health Community, WeDoctor will leverage digital technologies such as the internet, big data, and artificial intelligence to fully utilize Guangxi’s natural ecological advantages as a longevity and wellness destination. The company plans to establish a regional headquarters in Guangxi to promote the implementation of convenient, people-centric services and the development of the digital health industry in the region.
WeDoctor is a globally leading digital health platform that has connected more than 3,200 hospitals and over 300,000 physicians across 30 provinces in China. It has helped multiple cities, including Pingdingshan, Nanping, Tai’an, Yinchuan, Xiamen, Longyan, and Dezhou, build digital healthcare communities, earning recognition from government authorities at all levels.