WeDoctor Powers One-Third of Guangdong's First Batch of 22 Internet Hospitals
On April 23, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned that the Guangdong Provincial Internet Medical Services Supervision Platform has been fully launched. Meanwhile, the first batch of 22 internet hospitals officially went live, located in cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Zhuhai, and Shantou. Among them, seven internet hospitals were jointly built and operated by WeDoctor and public hospitals, accounting for nearly one-third of the first batch of internet hospitals. This has become the mainstream model for public hospitals and internet platforms to collaboratively establish and operate internet hospitals.
In 2015, WeDoctor established China’s first internet hospital—the Wuzhen Internet Hospital. On April 25, 2018, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of ‘Internet + Medical Health,’” marking the first time that “internet hospitals” were included in a State Council policy document. On June 5, Guangdong Province took the lead in rolling out a three-year action plan to promote the development of “Internet + Medical Health,” explicitly requiring that all Grade A tertiary hospitals fully implement “Internet +” medical services by 2020.
Leading hospitals across Guangdong Province have taken the lead by leveraging the new model of internet hospitals to explore online-offline homogenized “Internet + Healthcare” services oriented toward the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Provincial medical institutions, represented by Guangdong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital, leverage internet hospitals to advance the goals of strengthening primary care, building high-quality healthcare hubs, promoting healthcare reform, and safeguarding public health.
It is reported that the Guangdong Provincial Women and Children's Health Internet Hospital is China’s first provincial-level internet hospital dedicated to women’s and children’s health. Jointly established by the Guangdong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital and Guangzhou WeDoctor Internet Hospital, it has created a five-tier telehealth service platform spanning the provincial, municipal, county, township, and village levels, thereby reducing the distance between women and children in remote areas and the Guangdong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital from 500 kilometers to just 0.5 meters.
In the future, the Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital will lead 142 municipal and county-level maternal and child health hospitals across the province to join the Internet Hospital platform, and conduct 1,000 joint online and offline free clinics with the support of charitable funds, thereby strengthening medical collaboration between maternal and child health institutions at different levels.
As a pioneer city in China’s reform and opening-up, Shenzhen is exploring convenient medical services tailored for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Southern Medical University Shenzhen Hospital has currently achieved interconnectivity between its physical hospital and online platform, launching functions such as online appointment scheduling, virtual follow-up consultations, electronic medical records, health consultations, and online access to laboratory and imaging reports. It has also integrated end-to-end internet hospital services, including e-prescribing and home delivery of medications.
Meanwhile, as the Shenzhen base, this internet hospital has joined the WeDoctor Greater Bay Area Collaboration Platform to explore membership models for chronic disease management, obstetric care, and health management. Users from Hong Kong and Macao can book services through the collaboration platform, access their electronic reports anytime and anywhere after returning to Hong Kong or Macao, and consult with doctors via the internet hospital regarding any abnormal findings.
Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University’s Internet Hospital Conducts Remote Consultations
As the first pilot hospital for Foshan’s Medical Insurance Prescription Sharing Convenience Service Platform, Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Internet Hospital is the only internet hospital in Guangdong Province to pilot an integrated service model encompassing “online follow-up consultations, medical insurance settlement, and medication delivery.” It not only offers convenient services such as appointment registration, online consultation, online follow-up visits, medication delivery, online payment, and medical insurance settlement, but also enables online prescription sharing for both pooled medical insurance drugs and out-of-pocket medications, thereby promoting the integration of healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and medical insurance through “data interoperability, service connectivity, and payment integration.”
Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Internet Hospital Launches Remote Consultation Services
In Zhuhai, the “bridgehead” of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), Zhuhai People’s Hospital, as the medical “locomotive,” has not only established multiple specialty alliances—including interventional medicine, chest pain centers, and endocrinology and metabolism—but also collaborated with Guangzhou Internet Hospital to build the Zhuhai Internet Hospital. By leveraging an “Internet+” model, it closely connects with other hospitals across the GBA and has launched services such as online consultations, remote consultations within medical consortia, home health management, and embedded medical bases. These initiatives enable precise matching of patients with specialists and experts in advantageous disciplines, providing residents from the three regions with one-stop health management and medical services covering prevention, follow-up visits, and treatment.
It is understood that, as the operating entity of WeDoctor in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou Internet Hospital is the first internet hospital among Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. It not only holds the qualifications and licenses of a medical institution but also serves as an open platform, exporting four core capabilities—technology, systems, traffic, and operations—to medical institutions in Guangdong and even the entire Greater Bay Area. This helps more physical hospitals build and operate their own internet hospitals. Meanwhile, leveraging the internet hospital as a carrier, it integrates pharmaceuticals, medical insurance, and other services to facilitate the implementation of the coordinated reform of healthcare, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao.
Currently, the Guangzhou Internet Hospital has connected 79 hospitals and over 10,000 doctors across 21 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It has established 32 internet-based medical consortia, dozens of specialized collaboration alliances, and 500 pharmacy-clinic outlets. “Moving forward, leveraging these connected medical resources, the Guangzhou Internet Hospital will continue to collaborate with leading hospitals in various regions to develop internet hospital infrastructure. This initiative aims to provide residents of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with integrated ‘Internet + Healthcare’ services that combine online and offline care as well as general practice and specialty care, thereby promoting high-quality, integrated service delivery and making healthcare more accessible and convenient for the public,” stated a representative of the Guangzhou Internet Hospital.