From Exploration to Innovation: The Rise of Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital

On April 28, 2018, the “Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Development of ‘Internet + Healthcare’” (Guo Ban Fa [2018] No. 26) stated: “Medical institutions are permitted to establish internet hospitals. Medical institutions may use ‘internet hospital’ as their secondary name, leveraging internet technologies to provide safe and appropriate medical services on the basis of their physical facilities, and are allowed to conduct online follow-up consultations for certain common and chronic diseases.” This came 560 days after the establishment of Sichuan’s first internet hospital, Sichuan Weiyi Internet Hospital, on October 16, 2016.

Today, after more than two years of pilot development, Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital has emerged as a provincial benchmark for integrated online-offline internet hospitals. Centered in Sichuan, it leverages internet technologies to provide one-stop convenient healthcare services—including appointment registration, online consultations, remote consultations, e-prescriptions, and medication delivery—to residents in Sichuan and across China. This model enables patients to access diagnostic and treatment services from national medical experts without leaving home, while continuously promoting the decentralization of high-quality medical resources, cultivating and enhancing the professional capabilities of primary-care physicians, and effectively improving healthcare accessibility and quality for the general public.

In Moshi Village, Paha Township, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, 63-year-old villager Shan Lage often suffers from unbearable abdominal bloating, which makes it particularly difficult for him to get a good night’s sleep. Eager to seek medical treatment in the city, he has repeatedly delayed care due to transportation difficulties.

On October 20, 2017, Shan Lage experienced abdominal pain after breakfast and went to the village health center. He had previously heard that major urban specialists were available there, but he did not expect to actually encounter Chen Bo, Deputy Director of the Department of Gastroenterology at Sichuan Fourth People’s Hospital. Shan Lage explained to Director Chen that he often suffered from delayed gastric emptying, with food remaining undigested for four to five hours after meals. He was unable to tolerate even slightly cold foods and had long been plagued by abdominal distension and pain. After thoroughly assessing Shan Lage’s condition, Director Chen advised that his symptoms were likely due to indigestion caused by insufficient gastric motility. He prescribed prokinetic agents such as Domperidone (Motilium) to aid digestion, with the medications to be delivered directly to Shan Lage’s home through the distribution network of the Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital. Additionally, Director Chen recommended that Shan Lage undergo abdominal color Doppler ultrasonography and gastrointestinal endoscopy for further evaluation and treatment, in order to prevent disease progression and worsening.

On that day, Zhang Yunsheng, Deputy Director of the Government Offices Administration of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, gained a detailed understanding of the targeted poverty alleviation efforts undertaken by Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital through technical support and platform development, and highly affirmed its attempts and explorations in the model of targeted poverty alleviation.

Through the targeted poverty alleviation platform for remote consultations, Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital has established a remote training network that facilitates exchange and learning between specialists at tertiary hospitals and physicians at primary care institutions. This initiative has significantly improved the clinical skills of grassroots medical staff, enabled the sharing of medical resources and collaborative services across regions and nationwide, effectively promoted the decentralization of high-quality medical resources to the grassroots level, and allowed residents in remote areas of Sichuan to access premium healthcare services without leaving their homes. You Jia, General Manager of Sichuan WeDoctor, stated, “Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital has established a total of eight targeted poverty alleviation primary care access points in locations such as Moshi Village in Paha Township; Qiaodi Township and Yinchanggou in Xichang City, Liangshan Prefecture; Moshi Village in Leibo County; Guangming Town and Mianshan Town in Xide County; Li County and Xiaojin County in Aba Prefecture; and Shajian Village in Qinghe Township, Zhongjiang County, Deyang. These sites have cumulatively served 30,000 patient visits.”

On December 7, 2015, Wuzhen Internet Hospital, the first hospital in China to be named an “Internet Hospital,” was established. On March 28, 2016, a historic day, WeDoctor decided to implement the construction of the Sichuan Internet Hospital. On August 26, 2016, with strong support from the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, the Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital successfully obtained official approval. Built in reliance on a physical hospital and spanning nearly 20,000 square meters, the Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital completed the construction of functional areas including family physician contract services, PBM pharmacy, health management services, remote consultation platforms, and a big data center after nearly two months of intensive preparation. It was officially launched on October 16, 2016.

Since its establishment, Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital has adhered to two core principles: first, it focuses exclusively on online follow-up consultations, remote consultations, and health management services, while explicitly excluding initial diagnoses; second, it relies on physical medical institutions to provide an integrated online-to-offline (O2O) service model. At its inception, Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital established partnerships with several Grade A tertiary general hospitals, including the Fourth People’s Hospital of Sichuan Province, the General Hospital of Chengdu Military Region, Sichuan Cancer Hospital, and Nuclear Industry 416 Hospital. These prestigious institutions became the首批 key medical resources launched on the platform. By achieving interoperability with Wuzhen Internet Hospital, Sichuan WeDoctor has introduced high-quality medical resources from across China into Sichuan Province, providing residents with a closed-loop online and offline healthcare service system and building an internet healthcare platform centered on Sichuan’s medical resources.

Zhang Li, President of Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital, pointed out: “It is not enough to just have highways; there must be vehicles running on them.” Given Sichuan’s vast territory, large population, and uneven distribution of medical resources, Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital has leveraged the technological advantages of “Internet Plus” to promote the downward flow of high-quality medical resources, shift healthcare service scenarios closer to patients, and advance smart health insurance coverage, thereby charting its own path of development.

Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital is built on the foundation of data interconnectivity, effectively promoting the decentralization of high-quality medical resources through remote consultations, multidisciplinary consultations, online training, joint discipline development, and the application of big data in health and healthcare. By establishing standardized management protocols for in-hospital network-based diagnosis and treatment, and by integrating with the Sichuan Provincial Internet Medical Service Supervision Platform, it has systematically advanced the construction of a regulated framework for online clinical services. Through interoperability with Wuzhen Internet Hospital, it has introduced premium medical resources from across China to Sichuan, providing residents with integrated online-to-offline (O2O) closed-loop healthcare services. To date, Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital has onboarded more than 16,000 physicians, established over 800 expert teams, and cumulatively served 4 million patient visits via services including text-based consultations, rapid-response consultations, video consultations, and remote multidisciplinary consultations.

Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital is actively promoting an “Internet + Healthcare” service model that integrates “general practice + specialty care” and “online + offline” services, gradually shifting the focus from disease treatment to health intervention and chronic disease management, thereby enabling proactive health interventions ranging from active health management to clinical diagnosis and treatment. On September 8, 2018, the Chengdu WeDoctor General Practice Center officially opened its doors. Spanning 2,400 square meters, the center offers departments including general practice, gynecology, pediatrics, dentistry, rehabilitation and physiotherapy, and medical imaging. Built in strict accordance with JCI standards and equipped with world-class medical testing equipment, the center is committed to providing people across Sichuan Province with one-stop, high-quality healthcare services, including disease diagnosis, chronic disease follow-up, and rehabilitation management.

Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital is actively exploring the development of smart medical insurance systems. Currently, technical integration and internal testing for the provincial medical insurance payment system have been completed. In the future, Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital will follow the guidance outlined in the "Opinions on Promoting the Development of 'Internet + Medical Health'" and the "Key Tasks for Deepening Healthcare System Reform in the Second Half of 2018," to jointly discuss pricing policies for internet-based diagnosis and treatment, and advance the improvement of online medical insurance payment capabilities for internet hospitals. As a crucial component of the new ecosystem of "Internet + Medical Health," Sichuan Province's in-depth exploration of "Internet + Medical Insurance" will provide significant support for ensuring that the public has access to efficient, full-lifecycle medical and health services.

From Exploration to Innovation: Driven by Both Policy and Market Forces, Sichuan WeDoctor Internet Hospital Leverages Its Advantageous Resources to Deepen the “Internet + Healthcare” Development Model, Gradually Transforming the Medical-Seeking Habits of Sichuan Residents and Providing One-Stop, Convenient Healthcare Services to a Growing Population.