The New Era of Internet Healthcare Is Not About Robots Greeting Patients at Hospital Entrances: VB100 Insights

The 2018 Top 100 Future Healthcare Internet + Smart Hospital Forum was themed “Tide Direction ING.”

At the Internet + Smart Healthcare Forum, Liang Zhigang, Director of the Information Center at Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University; Zeng Baiyi, Chairman and Co-founder of Chunyu Doctors; Wei Jianfeng, President of Zhuojian Technology; Cong Lulu, Chief User Growth Officer at DXY; Jiang Tianjiao, Director at Founder Securities; Luo Shiming, Senior Researcher at VCBeat; Liu Zongyu, Executive Dean of VCBeat; Yang Hong, Senior Vice President of Huimei Medical Group; and Yao Feng’e, Healthcare Industry Lead Partner at KPMG, participated in the forum and delivered insightful speeches.

Implementing information technology in hospitals means leveraging IT to support medical quality, clinical substance, and healthcare management. Today’s internet hospitals are built upon physical hospitals, rather than merely adopting a business model that creates an online platform.

For smart healthcare, several concepts need to be re-evaluated:

1. The implementation of AI in the healthcare industry should not be merely a superficial gesture, such as robots lining up to welcome patients at hospital entrances; rather, it should leverage technological innovation to genuinely transform the environment of disease diagnosis and treatment, as well as to manage the diagnostic and therapeutic processes, care management workflows, and quality and safety protocols.

2. Smart healthcare requires the systematic organization of big data in the medical industry, covering patient registration, payment, diagnostic imaging, laboratory testing, hospitalization, surgery, rehabilitation, and follow-up care, with these areas serving as demand-driven priorities. Currently, genomics and proteomics have established a substantial data foundation, whereas research into the fundamental nature of diseases—such as human anatomy and disease mechanisms—remains largely empirical. Large-scale data modeling can aggregate and share this empirical knowledge.

Chunyu Doctor has evolved from its initial mobile app to a multi-platform ecosystem, with its services now accessible via its app, website, and WeChat interface, as well as integrated into open platforms including Baidu, Alipay, and BabyTree. “We aim to deliver our services where users are most readily engaged or where access is most convenient for them.”

Chunyu Doctor’s online consultation service adheres to the “4A” standards: Available, Affable, Able, and Affordable. These four criteria correspond respectively to accessibility, attitude, quality, and affordability of consultations.

In addition, Chunyu Doctor has established an internet-based tiered diagnosis and treatment system built upon its online consultation services. “We aim to shift from a resource-centric model to a user-centric one, addressing users’ needs through tiered service delivery.” Starting with user traffic, the company implements tiered diagnosis and treatment by structuring services into levels: initial consultation, family doctor, online consultation, community clinic, and hospital.

“Online consultations do not imply that the treatment received or the consulting physicians are of poor quality; rather, they enable patients to access high-quality physicians without leaving home, reflecting a cost-conscious choice by patients.” Within this system, patients select the tier of medical services they receive based on cost and health needs, thereby facilitating the rational allocation of healthcare resources.

Establishing closed-loop systems for data, services, patient management, and family physician contracting, while achieving business coordination and division between tertiary and primary care hospitals, remains unattainable even in China’s most digitally advanced cities.

Comprehensive patient management is integral to the efficacy of healthcare services. However, hospitals have limited capacity for long-term patient oversight, which is typically handled by primary care community family physicians. Major hospitals must synchronize this data and operational workflow with external providers, establishing a closed-loop system—a strategic direction pursued by Zhuojian Technology.

The current healthcare industry faces the challenge of deconstruction. Multi-site practice liberates physicians; the separation of prescribing from dispensing, coupled with volume-based procurement, deconstructs the pharmaceutical sector; third-party testing laboratories deconstruct hospital laboratory departments; and tiered diagnosis and treatment deconstruct patient flow. What remains for hospitals? This is a critically severe question.

Internet-based approaches can efficiently and rapidly restructure healthcare delivery models. The primary strategy involves digitizing physician training, online services offered by leading hospitals, and community-based healthcare services.

By establishing an external “Internet+” service platform, the hospital provides unified outward-facing services, including online medical consultations, family physician contracting and referral services through a community-based SaaS system, and physician education.

Chinese patients place significant emphasis on the traditional diagnostic methods of inspection, auscultation and olfaction, inquiry, and pulse-taking. Consequently, it is difficult for internet-based healthcare to completely replace offline medical practices. Therefore, internet healthcare should not be viewed merely as the online migration or replacement of traditional healthcare; rather, it serves as an accessibility supplement to offline medical services. For instance, online healthcare can deliver a superior service experience for individuals in remote areas, those with limited mobility, and patients facing long wait times for in-person consultations.

People typically expect hospitals to provide curative solutions when they are ill, whereas internet-based healthcare mostly involves psychological communication in non-disease states. Therefore, under the internet healthcare model, the focus is not only on addressing certain medical conditions but also, and more importantly, on providing reassurance and emotional support.

Within this framework, beyond professionalism, greater emphasis should be placed on delivering user experiences that exceed expectations.

Throughout the healthcare service delivery process, users or patients are relatively passive. Due to high patient volumes and heavy workloads, physicians often struggle to provide a satisfactory experience. However, on internet-based platforms, this passivity and poor experience can be overcome.

There are three new consumption patterns: First, we have greater choice and are not confined to a single approach; we can consult online or visit offline facilities, and choose between mid-to-high-end clinics or tertiary Grade A hospitals. Second, healthcare is fundamentally a service industry; while it is more specialized than other services, there are no significant differences in essence. Third, medical services come with expectations; in the new era of consumption, users will exercise their right to choose superior services at a higher premium.

Focusing on endgame thinking means viewing the present from the perspective of the future. For example, in 2015, Ping An Good Doctor launched its new product and went public simultaneously, driven by its vision of the endgame.

End-game thinking can help filter out noise that may cloud our judgment during the process. For instance, current internet hospitals are evolving in only two directions: one is follow-up consultations, and the other is the management of chronic and common diseases. While exploiting policy loopholes may prove effective in the short term, their long-term viability and sustainability warrant careful consideration.

The endgame of internet healthcare is not far off. Internet business models such as group-buying, ride-hailing, the “Groupon Wars,” and bike-sharing underwent industry consolidation within no more than two to three years, rapidly entering a phase of monopoly. The digitalization of the healthcare sector will proceed at a slower pace; in my view, it will take approximately five years to complete one cycle and reach its final market structure.

What Internet Hospitals Have Changed: Healthcare-Seeking Habits, Product Forms, and Payment Methods. Originating from traditional brick-and-mortar hospitals, internet hospitals can drive a shift in healthcare-seeking behaviors; online consultations are a standard feature of internet hospital offerings; and once integrated with national health insurance, the profitability model of internet hospitals will undergo significant changes.

Aspects unchanged by internet healthcare include: the characteristics of low-frequency, passive demand, and the difficulty in rapid iteration and dissemination.