Vice Premier Sun Chunlan Inspects Wuzhen Internet Hospital, Endorses 'Internet+ Healthcare' Development

According to Xinhua News Agency, from May 20 to 22, Sun Chunlan, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, conducted research in Zhejiang Province. She emphasized the need to deepen the comprehensive reform of public hospitals, promote the development of “Internet Plus” healthcare, and encourage private medical practice, so as to provide the public with high-quality, efficient, and convenient health services.

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the development of “Internet + Healthcare.” On April 28, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting the Development of “Internet + Healthcare,” aiming to advance the deep integration of the internet with healthcare services. On the morning of May 21, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan made a special trip to Wuzhen in Jiaxing, the permanent host city of the World Internet Conference, to conduct an on-site investigation into the “Internet + Healthcare” initiatives at the Wuzhen Internet Hospital.

Driven by the combined forces of policy, technology, and market dynamics, Wuzhen Internet Hospital and Wuzhen Internet Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic have achieved rapid development since their establishment. On December 7, 2015, Wuzhen Internet Hospital, jointly established by WeDoctor and the Tongxiang Municipal Government, officially commenced operations. This initiative pioneered a new model of internet hospitals based on physical medical institutions, spurring the rapid growth of internet hospitals across China.

According to reports, the WeDoctor Wuzhen Internet Hospital platform began by helping large hospitals optimize patient care processes and has since expanded to provide over ten cloud-based and artificial intelligence solutions for healthcare institutions. The platform currently connects 2,700 hospitals and 240,000 doctors across China, links nearly 20,000 primary healthcare institutions and pharmacies, and serves more than 160 million real-name registered users.

Building on its connectivity and service capabilities, the Wuzhen Internet Hospital has evolved into an Internet Medical Consortium platform, delivering system, resource, and operational advantages at scale to medical institutions at all levels. WeDoctor has assisted over 100 hub hospitals, including Shanghai Huashan Hospital, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Shandong Provincial Third Hospital, in establishing Internet Medical Consortia. It has also helped Heilongjiang Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, as well as Pingdingshan City, Changzhou City, Dengzhou, and Jia County in Henan Province, to build regional population health information cloud platforms. The application of the Internet Hospital platform has made high-quality medical resources across China “just a touchscreen away” for residents in impoverished areas such as Daning and Yonghe Counties in Shanxi Province, Guangshan County in Henan Province, and Liangshan Prefecture in Sichuan Province.

On that day, experts from Gansu Internet Hospital, Huashan Hospital’s Cloud Hospital, and Wuzhen Internet Hospital were conducting a tripartite remote consultation for a patient in Gansu with complex conditions including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), coronary heart disease, and Grade 3 hypertension. Since 2016, Wuzhen Internet Hospital has established 12 specialized remote consultation centers for conditions such as dermatological diseases, colorectal cancer, and pancreatic disorders, helping patients with complex and refractory diseases in central and western provinces gain access to expert care.

While deeply connecting with and serving medical institutions through the Wuzhen Internet Hospital, WeDoctor has also established its own offline general practice centers to address service gaps. This has created a healthcare supply capability characterized by an “online + offline” and “general practice + specialty care” model. Coupled with health insurance payment leverage and health management services, this forms a new type of Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) system. Recently, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security approved the Wuzhen Internet Hospital as a designated medical institution for direct settlement of cross-regional medical expenses in Zhejiang Province.

According to Xinhua News Agency, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan fully affirmed the achievements made in Zhejiang Province’s pilot program for comprehensive medical reform. She emphasized that all aspects of healthcare reform should be guided by the overarching concepts of “Great Health” and “Great Hygiene,” placing greater emphasis on prevention and substantially strengthening disease prevention and health promotion efforts. The active development of “Internet + Healthcare” should be pursued by expanding online services such as appointment scheduling, follow-up consultations for chronic diseases, and telemedicine, while enhancing quality control and data security supervision to promote the co-construction, sharing, intelligence, and convenience of healthcare services.