Guangdong Launches Nation's First Provincial Maternal and Child Health Internet Hospital, Establishing Greater Bay Area Service Hub
On November 27, the launch ceremony for China’s first provincial-level internet hospital dedicated to women’s and children’s health, as well as the Women’s and Children’s Health Service Base of the WeDoctor Greater Bay Area Collaboration Platform, was grandly held at Guangdong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital. During the event, the Guangdong Provincial Women’s and Children’s Health Internet Hospital—China’s first provincial-level internet hospital focused on women’s and children’s health—was officially launched. Additionally, Guangdong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital signed a Framework Agreement on Cooperation in “Internet + Healthcare” Services with WeDoctor Guangzhou Internet Hospital to jointly establish the Women’s and Children’s Health Service Base of the WeDoctor Greater Bay Area Collaboration Platform.Residents of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can access convenient online and offline maternal and child health services through three main channels: website, mobile app, and dedicated telephone hotline.
Hu Dingxu, Standing Committee Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), former Chairman of the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong, and Chairman of the WeDoctor Greater Bay Area Collaboration Platform; Yao Zhibin, President of the Guangdong Medical Association and former Vice Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPPCC; Ma Wenfeng, Member of the Party Leadership Group of the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission and Director of the Bureau of Cadre Health Care; Yang Qi, Assistant to the Director of the National Center for Women and Children’s Health; Huang Hanlin, President of Guangdong Women and Children’s Hospital; Liao Jieyuan, Founder and CEO of WeDoctor; Zhang Qunhua, Chief Medical Officer of WeDoctor and Dean of Guangzhou Internet Hospital; Huang Li, President of the Guangdong Hospital Association; leaders from relevant departments of the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission; leaders from selected provincial medical and health institutions; representatives from maternal and child health hospitals in various cities, some county- and district-level maternal and child health hospitals, and primary healthcare institutions; as well as representatives from medical and health institutions in Hong Kong and Macao—totaling more than 300 attendees—were present at the signing and launch ceremony.
Guangdong has served as the vanguard, pioneer, and experimental zone for China’s reform and opening-up. Since the initiation of these reforms, the CPC Central Committee has consistently encouraged Guangdong to boldly explore and practice new approaches. Ma Wenfeng stated, “In an era marked by rapid advancements in Internet Plus, big data, and artificial intelligence technologies, the Guangdong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital has actively explored the integration of new technologies with traditional medical services, guided by the overarching strategy of ‘strengthening primary care, building centers of excellence, promoting healthcare reform, and safeguarding public health.’ Focusing on addressing the unbalanced and inadequate development of maternal and child health services in Guangdong Province, we have established the nation’s first provincial-level internet hospital dedicated to women’s and children’s health, ushering in a new era of maternal and child health services across the province and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.”
Dean Huang Hanlin believes that, driven by the development of artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT), the Guangdong Women’s and Children’s Health Internet Hospital is helping to promote high-quality development of maternal and child health services across the province and will become a major breakthrough in improving primary healthcare. Huang Hanlin introduced that the Guangdong Women’s and Children’s Health Internet Hospital features six key characteristics.
First, it applies the theory of tertiary prevention to provide comprehensive health services for women and children. Second, it establishes a remote maternal and child health service platform that connects five tiers of medical and healthcare institutions—provincial, municipal, county/district, township, and village—facilitating the decentralization of high-quality medical resources and reducing the distance between women and children in remote areas and the Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital from 500 kilometers to just 0.5 meters.
Third, it serves as a “bridge” connecting maternal and child health services in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with gradual expansion to Belt and Road Initiative countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, and other regions. By the end of this year, the Guangdong Provincial Internet Hospital for Women’s and Children’s Health will establish a service point at Lekma Hospital in Ghana, Africa.
Fourth, online and offline services are integrated, with physical healthcare institutions providing support and infrastructure for online services.
Fifth, the integration of internet and geographic information technologies, combined with branch-based services and mobile emergency care, enables mobile emergency medical services supported by provincial-level telemedicine platforms. Sixth, through “Internet + Internet of Things,” the combination of wearable monitoring devices and remote monitoring technology brings maternal and child health services into homes, allowing certain maternal and pediatric patients to access premium healthcare services without leaving home. Meanwhile, mutual support communities will be established for groups with different health profiles to share experiences, thereby facilitating patient recovery, reintegration into family life, and return to society.
On the day of the launch ceremony, Guangdong Women and Children’s Hospital established nine-party collaborative connections with eight primary healthcare institutions across five cities, including Chaozhou, Shaoguan, Huizhou, and Yangjiang. Additionally, the hospital signed cooperation agreements for Internet Hospital (affiliate hospital) services with Chaozhou Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Yangjiang Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Shaoguan Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Huizhou Second Maternal and Child Health Hospital, and Caitang Hua’er Health Station in Chao’an District, Chaozhou City.
“Next, we will facilitate the integration of 142 maternal and child health hospitals at the municipal and county levels across the province into the Internet Hospital platform to carry out offline and remote medical collaboration,” said Huang Hanlin. He added that the Provincial Women’s and Children’s Health Internet Hospital would leverage charitable funds to conduct 1,000 joint online and offline free clinics through the Greater Bay Area Women’s and Children’s Health Service Platform. This initiative aims to strengthen medical collaboration between maternal and child health institutions at different hierarchical levels and play a significant role in supporting targeted poverty alleviation and promoting the transformation of healthcare models, such as tiered diagnosis and treatment and two-way referrals.
On the same day, the Women’s and Children’s Health Service Base of the WeDoctor Greater Bay Area Collaboration Platform was unveiled at the Guangdong Provincial Women’s and Children’s Health Internet Hospital. “The Women’s and Children’s Health Service Base will leverage the resource advantages of the Guangdong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital to serve as a hub for women’s and children’s health services in the Greater Bay Area and a center for collaboration among maternal and child health institutions, providing residents of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao with ‘90-second online consultations and 90-minute offline services’ for women’s and children’s health,” said Liao Jieyuan. The WeDoctor Greater Bay Area Collaboration Platform will use its leading medical specialties as an entry point to continuously integrate healthcare resources across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, promoting the integration of medical services with technological platforms.
A few days ago, Binbin (a pseudonym), a one-year-old boy in Hong Kong, developed red, rough, and itchy skin. His mother consulted a dermatologist at Guangdong Women and Children’s Hospital via the WeDoctor app. The doctor initially attributed the symptoms to an allergy, provided temporary management advice, and recommended further allergen testing. Since allergen testing in Hong Kong costs thousands of Hong Kong dollars, Binbin’s mother used the WeDoctor app again to schedule an allergen test at Guangdong Women and Children’s Hospital three days later, at a cost of only a few hundred yuan.
Currently, in addition to the WeDoctor app, the web portal and dedicated telephone hotline (95169-888) of the Greater Bay Area Collaboration Platform have been launched. Residents of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao can access convenient medical services through these three online channels, including pre-consultation triage, appointment registration, online follow-up consultations, health insurance, remote consultations, physical examination bookings, and online payment.
It is understood that this platform is the first medical collaboration platform in China to support registration by users from Hong Kong and Macao, and it has integrated online payment functionality for these users. To date, the collaboration platform has connected 79 hospitals across 21 cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, over 10,000 physicians, 32 internet-based medical consortia, dozens of specialty collaboration alliances, and 500 pharmacy-clinic outlets. Enterprises such as Lee & Man (Hong Kong), Baode Medical (Hong Kong), Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings, Dashenlin Pharmacy, Yilianzhong, China Telecom Guangdong Branch, and China Unicom Guangdong Branch have partnered with WeDoctor to jointly develop new models of healthcare services in the Greater Bay Area.
“Just 16 working days after the launch of the Greater Bay Area Collaboration Platform, its service portal has gone fully online, and the first specialty base—the Women’s and Children’s Health Base—has officially begun serving the public. This fully demonstrates ‘Internet speed’ and ‘Greater Bay Area speed,’” revealed Hu Dingxu. The platform’s Shenzhen base is scheduled to be launched in December at Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University. Going forward, the platform will continue to expand its city-level and specialty bases across 19 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province, the two major cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, forming a collaborative healthcare service network covering Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, and serving as the health gatekeeper for 70 million residents of the Greater Bay Area.