From Passive Pivot to Natural Evolution: DXY Unveils Patient-Centric Strategy Ahead of IPO
On December 6, DXY unveiled its patient-centric business strategy for the first time. In 2017, DXY will focus on building “DXY Care Services,” centered around three core business lines: public health education, patient management and services, and health management and services. Anchored by the DXY Patient Care Team and delivered through the “DXY Care” (DXYcare) WeChat Service Account, DXY Care Services aims to establish a comprehensive “Patient Journey” service system that spans the entire continuum from “pre-disease” to “disease onset,” “treatment,” and “recovery.”
Physicians and patients are the two pivotal pillars of the healthcare service chain, and DXY is undoubtedly the most influential physician service platform in the mobile internet sector. “Plan before acting; know when to stop to achieve success.” Amidst the surge in mobile health over the past two years, DXY has appeared unconventional and understated, yet it has been steadily accumulating capabilities and implementing prudent strategic layouts.
Li Tiantian, founder of DXY, candidly stated that over the past 16-plus years since its establishment, DXY’s primary mission has been to serve physicians. The company has built a comprehensive physician service system centered on data, encompassing content, interaction, and tools. In this process, DXY has developed a mature collaborative model with pharmaceutical and medical device/equipment companies by opening up its data and platform, thereby jointly serving physicians in China.
Although DXY had established a viable revenue model on the physician side, it did not rush to fully enter the patient-side market. Instead, it leveraged its strong physician resources to focus on its core competencies, maximizing the advantage of this scarce resource. Within the “patient journey” spanning “pre-disease, onset, treatment, and recovery,” DXY initially focused in 2014 on its strength in medical content creation, launching professional health education services for the general public (the Consumer segment, or “C-end”) under the brand Dingxiang Doctor.
Unlike other medical science popularization organizations, DXY has adopted a physician "peer review" system, whereby every popular science article must be reviewed by the "Content Committee." The Content Committee typically consists of 20–30 clinical physicians who are responsible for ensuring the scientific rigor and evidence-based foundation of the content. This mechanism has fully guaranteed the quality of its educational materials, enabling DXY to quickly emerge as the leader in the vertical healthcare sector and accumulate substantial content focused on preventive care.
In building its healthcare service ecosystem, DXY is also committed to integrating online and offline medical models. “Ask a Doctor” is an online consultation tool based on WeChat, connecting doctors and patients through high-quality, personalized Q&A. Preparations for “DXY Clinic” began in 2014, and it currently operates four chain clinics in cities such as Fuzhou and Hangzhou, primarily focusing on the treatment of common and frequently occurring conditions in internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, and pediatrics. All of DXY’s initiatives aim to bridge the online and offline realms, providing target patients with consultation and diagnostic and therapeutic services throughout the “treatment” process.
In 2015, the DXY Patient Care Team was established, marking the completion of the closed-loop “Patient Journey” service model. The Patient Care Team comprises two components: Health Management Strategy Design and the Care Center. The Health Management Strategy Design team develops disease-specific quality management systems, communication scripts, and compliance frameworks. The Care Center is staffed entirely by senior nurses and nutritionists from Grade 3A hospitals, who deliver patient care services through online platforms, telephone consultations, and follow-up visits.
Traditional chronic disease management models suffer from a lack of timely data, excessive service costs, and poor patient experience. To address these challenges, DXY’s Care Center has prioritized “data structuring” since its inception, integrating multiple communication channels to establish a unified Patient Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. A distinguishing feature of the Care Center is its physician-led model. As leaders of the care teams, each physician oversees 3–5 care specialists, with each specialist managing a panel of 500–3,000 patients. With the patient care team as the core, DXY seamlessly connects three business lines—“Public Health Education,” “Patient Management and Services,” and “Health Management and Services”—thereby creating an integrated continuum across the entire “patient journey,” spanning prevention, onset, treatment, and recovery.
“Health management is a long-term and arduous endeavor; we need more trustworthy partners.” As Li Tiantian noted, with continuous policy liberalization, ongoing technological advancements, and the impetus of capital investment, the health industry has seen the emergence of increasingly diverse health management service models. Li Tiantian also introduced the collaboration models between DXY, which has been deeply engaged in medical services for many years, and health product providers, medical device companies, and insurance firms.
“Public Health Education” provides health information and consultations to healthy individuals, bridging the gap between the pre-disease and disease stages. Based on comprehensive health records, it implements preventive interventions against potential diseases. Specifically, it leverages DXY’s traditional strengths in medical health content and its online platforms—such as the WeChat official account “Dingxiang Doctor”—to produce and disseminate popular science knowledge on health, thereby maximizing the fulfillment of patients’ information needs.
“Patient Management and Services” leverages smart hardware to collect data, enabling online and telephone interventions for patients with specific conditions through real-time data analysis, thereby bridging the gap between treatment and recovery phases. Since late 2015, DXY, Tencent, and ZhongAn Insurance have jointly developed an innovative chronic disease management model—“Tencent Tang Dafu – DXY Care Services – ZhongAn Tang Xiaobei.” This initiative not only pioneered the tripartite collaboration of “smart hardware + care services + insurance” in China but also provides management and coverage to help diabetic patients control complications.
In the tripartite collaborative system, the Tencent Tang Daifu smart glucometer uploads blood glucose data to the cloud in real time. The DXY patient management team leverages this real-time data to provide patients with immediate online diagnosis, treatment, and health management services, delivering timely and personalized professional medical support while accumulating big data. ZhongAn Insurance introduces rehabilitation incentive insurance services tailored for patients, offering coverage for diabetes complications. By adjusting coverage limits based on patients’ monitoring habits, it provides positive incentives to help patients gradually develop scientific habits for blood glucose control. The innovative chronic disease management model, “Tencent Tang Daifu – DXY Care Services – ZhongAn Tang Xiaobei,” received the Nomination Award for Health Industry Development Innovation at the 2016 China Health Industry Innovation “Qipu Awards,” organized by the China-Europe Center for Health Management and Policy.
“Health Management and Services” integrates the strengths of the aforementioned two models, catering to both healthy individuals and patients. It connects the stages from illness onset to treatment through online and offline triage services, ultimately streamlining the entire “patient journey” by leveraging health information, health consultations, offline triage, and a network of affiliated clinics and hospitals. In November 2016, DXY and NowHealth International announced a joint venture to create Dr. Kang, a service platform designed to transform customers into “health partners.”
Dr. Kang focuses on the (sub-)health, disease, and recovery phases of the population, providing health Q&A, online consultations, and recovery care services, respectively. The key component behind these services is the DXY Care Center. The Care Center offers peer-reviewed personalized health information, referral appointments to network hospitals, proactive support through follow-ups by care specialists, and dietary guidance. For patients, care specialists at the Care Center can communicate with them in a timely manner, engage in real-time professional interactions, and convey doctors’ instructions and answers in plain language to facilitate better understanding and adherence.
It is evident that DXY, after 16 years of accumulation, is attempting to leverage its extensive physician resources and established corporate partnership model to transform the entire health management process. This endeavor requires not only a steadfast commitment to improving medical services but also keen insights into industry trends, seamless collaboration among a seasoned team, and the determination to seize opportunities amidst challenges. We look forward to DXY forging a path that better serves both physicians and patients.