26 Chinese Healthcare Innovators Recognized in 2018 China Grassroots Healthcare Innovation Awards

On June 9, 2018, the 2018 Summit on Innovative Practices in Primary Healthcare was held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. The event was hosted by the National Engineering Laboratory for Internet Medical Systems and Applications, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, the Internet Medical Health Industry Alliance, and VCBeat. It was co-organized by Legend Capital, Probes Capital, Health Intelligence Valley, Eggshell Research Institute, and Future Healthcare Academy, with support from the Smart and Mobile Medical Branch of the China Association of Medical Devices and the Medical and Health Industry Branch of the China Information Association.

Last year, VCBeat launched the inaugural Primary Care Innovation Practice Forum under the theme “The Power of Downward Momentum.” Over the past year, through our continuous in-depth exploration, we have found that the foundational industrial architecture of primary care has been initially established. Innovative industry models have now taken shape, including medical consortia, new-type clinics, community health management, pharmaceutical distribution and retail, third-party imaging services, and third-party hemodialysis centers. Accordingly, “New Structural Framework” has become the overarching theme for the comprehensive upgrade of primary care in 2018.

These industrial models are dedicated to achieving resource sharing and addressing the lagging development of primary healthcare. They constitute a vital component in building core competitiveness at the primary care level and are key to strengthening the primary healthcare service system. Innovative medical enterprises that truly represent and are deeply rooted in primary care are poised to become a new force in the future healthcare market.

On April 2, 2018, the campaign to identify the best cases of innovative practices in China’s primary healthcare sector was officially launched. Over a two-month period, a total of 142 primary healthcare project cases were collected from 27 provinces and municipalities across China.

A total of 26 best practice cases were ultimately selected across 8 categories.

This call for submissions analyzed and evaluated cases from multiple dimensions, including industrial policy, business model feasibility, technological advancement, breadth of grassroots coverage, and effectiveness of grassroots adoption. It involved surveys of innovative enterprises in the grassroots healthcare sector and underwent rigorous, iterative expert review and screening. Ultimately, 26 best-practice cases across eight categories were selected, aiming to provide more reference models for industry innovators and to outline new development patterns in China’s grassroots healthcare industry.

Initial consultation at primary care facilities, two-way referrals, separate management of acute and chronic conditions, and coordinated care between upper- and lower-tier institutions ultimately create an ideal healthcare-seeking pattern: minor ailments are treated in the community, serious diseases are managed in hospitals, and rehabilitation care returns to the community. Initial consultation at primary care facilities serves as a crucial foundation for the tiered diagnosis and treatment system; however, strengthening primary healthcare is a complex systemic engineering endeavor that requires a long-term development process. The following award-winning enterprise cases demonstrate efforts to explore the “Internet + Healthcare” model, leveraging teleconsultation, remote outpatient services, and remote education to enhance both temporal and spatial accessibility to high-quality medical resources.

WeDoctor Cloud

Award-Winning Case: Pingdingshan Primary Healthcare Cloud

Xinyi International

Award-Winning Case: Practice of Internet+ Medical Health Innovation Projects Based on Physical Healthcare

Shanba Group

Award-Winning Case: Smart Diagnosis and Treatment Based on the Telemedicine Cloud Platform

Chenrui Medical

Award-Winning Case: Construction and Application of Medical Consortiums Based on the Chenrui Shared Medical Platform

Juding Medical

Award-Winning Case: CLEAR’s Innovation and Practice in Comprehensive Informatics Construction for Medical Consortia via the “Platform + Service” Model

Specialized Medical Consortiums are one of the four models of medical consortiums. Most of them are cross-regional alliances, placing greater emphasis on improving medical technical expertise and talent development within specific specialties. They provide homogeneous services and standardized diagnostic and treatment protocols to institutions within the consortium, serving as a key node in facilitating tiered diagnosis and treatment. These consortia, formed through specialized collaboration, typically center on the distinctive specialties of a leading medical institution, integrating similar specialty resources from other healthcare providers to establish several regional centers of excellence. This approach enhances the capacity to manage major specialized diseases and fosters a complementary development model. We have observed some outstanding examples among them.

Ruikang Medical Information

Award-Winning Case: Precision Management of High-Risk Pregnant Women Based on Mobile Health and IoT Technologies

Huiyi Huiying

Award-Winning Case: Co-Construction Project of Henan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital and Huiyi Huiying Intelligent Imaging Center

"Renowned Physician-Led Surgery"

Award-Winning Case: A Professional Internet-Based Surgical Platform in China

Dafang County Second People's Hospital (Dafang County Evergrande Charity Hospital), Bijie City, Guizhou Province

Award-Winning Case: Precision Management of High-Risk Pregnant Women Based on Mobile Health and IoT Technologies

Strengthening weak primary healthcare information systems by leveraging the concepts and technologies of “Internet+” to integrate with other management and service frameworks, empowering primary healthcare institutions, and providing residents with mobile, online, and standardized services is a long-term endeavor. In the field of primary care informatics, there is no shortage of innovative enterprises daring to break with tradition.

Mingyi Zhonghe

Award-Winning Case: Medical Insurance Cloud Service and Governance Platform for Small and Micro Medical Institutions

Dr. Almond

Award-Winning Case: Providing Chinese Elite Physicians with a Comprehensive Online-Offline Business Operation Platform

Apricot Forest

Award-Winning Case: Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment Management Practice Across the Entire Process

Enhancing the level of chronic disease health management for the entire population is a medium- to long-term strategic plan under the broader context of the “Healthy China” strategy. How to build an intelligent, comprehensive chronic disease health management service platform, leverage advanced information technologies such as remote outpatient consultations, remote ward rounds, and remote consultations to improve management effectiveness, elevate the capabilities of primary care physicians, and increase patient engagement and satisfaction, constitutes the core competitiveness of chronic disease and health management platforms in the new era.

Gairui Technology

Award-Winning Case: Empowering Suzhou Community Health Service Centers to Build an Intelligent Comprehensive Health Management Service Platform for Residents

Xikang Medical

Award-Winning Case: Chronic Disease Management Project Based on Regional Healthcare Informationization

iKidney Medical

Award-Winning Case: Remote Ward Rounds and Management Practices by Physician Groups in Grassroots Independent Hemodialysis Centers

Enhancing the capacity of clinics to accept patients and deliver services is an indispensable component of developing primary healthcare. However, clinics face numerous challenges, including management difficulties, talent shortages, complexities in integrating with medical insurance systems, the need for physicians’ skill enhancement, and non-standardized operational management. How to leverage healthcare informatization to penetrate this sector, facilitate the rapid development of grassroots clinics, and provide resource and service platforms has become a key factor in evaluating corporate competitiveness.

Ping An Wanjia Medical

Award-Winning Case: Innovative Project for a Standardized Clinic Management Service Platform

Dingxiang Clinic

Award-Winning Case: New Clinic Talent Training and Product Design Incubation Base

Aokao Technology

Award-Winning Case: A New Clinic Informatics Tool Based on Integration with the Medical Insurance System

National policies encourage the development of socialized medical services. For instance, the “Opinions on Supporting Social Forces in Providing Multi-level and Diversified Medical Services,” issued by the General Office of the State Council last year, emphasizes building a large number of privately-run medical institutions with strong service competitiveness, forming several influential clusters of specialized health service industries, ensuring that service supply basically meets domestic demand, and gradually establishing a new pattern of multi-level and diversified medical services. These factors have favored the rise of specialized clinics in pediatrics, dentistry, gynecology, and other fields, and have initiated chain-based operations.

Meiwei Dental Healthcare

Award-Winning Case: A Platform Empowering China’s Leading Dental Healthcare Brands and Enabling Their Personalized Development

WeCare Pediatrics

Award-Winning Case: A Chain of Private Pediatric Clinics Originating from the United States

The integration of commercial insurance with chronic disease management to achieve cost control is a highly viable model. The innovative service model of “chronic disease insurance + health management” has demonstrated significant effectiveness in risk control. However, for basic medical insurance, the inability to process payments without physical card presentation restricts optimization of all payment processes to within medical institutions. This prevents the implementation of various mobile payment applications vigorously promoted by national policies. Applications such as online pharmaceutical services and internet hospitals rely on card-not-present medical insurance payments, a situation that urgently requires innovative enterprises to break through.

Ping An Medical Insurance Technology

Award-Winning Case: Exploring Public-Private Partnership in Outpatient Chronic Disease Management

Weimai

Award-Winning Case: Innovation and Practice of Card-Free Medical Insurance Payment Based on the Weimai Unified Payment Platform

Edong Medical Group

Award-Winning Case: Innovation and Practice of Card-Free Medical Insurance Payment Based on the Weimai Unified Payment Platform

Driven by factors such as policy, capital, technology, industrial upgrading demands, and consumption, the pharmaceutical distribution and retail industry is undergoing a new transformation. How should distribution companies respond to the “Two-Invoice System” and the VAT reform? How can individual agents transition into professional Contract Sales Organizations (CSOs)? How are third-party pharmaceutical logistics companies carving out their share of the pharmaceutical distribution market? What strategies should be adopted for M&A and integration within the industry? How will the upstream and downstream segments of the industrial chain evolve? How can pharmaceutical retail enterprises accommodate the trend of “prescription outflow” and realize the “new retail” model in pharmaceuticals? We have seen outstanding pioneers leading the way.

KuaiYiJian

Award-Winning Case: A Primary Healthcare Service Platform Based on Mobile Internet and Medical Cold-Chain Logistics

Shanghai Pharma Cloud Health

Award-Winning Case: Shanghai Community Comprehensive Reform Prescription Extension Project

Lanxinkang

Award-Winning Case: Providing Big Data-Driven Chronic Disease Management Services for Peizhitang Chain Pharmacies in Anshan, Liaoning