2016 Eye of the Storm: Future Healthcare 100 Forum Witnesses a Medical Revolution and Seeks China's Core Health Innovation Forces
Throughout human history, many great technological inventions have emerged, yet none has ever held the power to directly determine life and death as medicine does. From Hippocrates, the physician of the Periclean Age in ancient Greece who proposed the famous “Humoral Theory,” to William Osler, the medical scientist who established the residency training system and bedside teaching; from early intuition-based experimental treatments to precision medicine driven by imaging, molecular, and biochemical technologies—technological advancements, business model innovations, and numerous institutional reforms have jointly injected disruptive forces into the healthcare sector at both micro and macro levels.
In China’s vast healthcare market, new technological breakthroughs and innovations are quietly reshaping the healthcare ecosystem around patients, doctors, and hospitals, giving rise to new models such as online consultations, physician groups, precision medicine, telemedicine, and commercial health insurance. Particularly with the rise of the internet in 2014, the force of unbridled growth brought a ray of light to the stagnant healthcare sector. Since then, internet healthcare companies have advanced by leaps and bounds, with well-positioned unicorns emerging in droves, creating a momentary constellation of stars.
However, on the landscape of China’s broader health sector, deep-seated and chronic issues remain unresolved. Particularly in 2016, as the healthcare market gradually returned to rationality, both investors and practitioners began to reimagine the full spectrum of China’s future medical landscape, with cross-industry collaboration, integration, and breakthrough strategies becoming the new normal. The storm of rapid change has slowly settled into a state of equilibrium.
On April 26, the State Council released the “Key Tasks for Deepening the Reform of the Medical and Healthcare System in 2016.” The document explicitly stipulates that hospitals are prohibited from restricting the outflow of prescriptions, allowing patients to freely choose whether to purchase medications at hospital outpatient pharmacies or at retail pharmacies with a prescription. Meanwhile, it proposes improving the drug supply guarantee mechanism, consolidating and perfecting the essential medicine system, refining the drug price formation mechanism, establishing a new order for drug production and distribution, and enhancing the capacity for drug supply assurance.
In May, Yaogeili announced the suspension of its operations. Shortly thereafter, reports emerged that the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) had issued the “Notice on Emergency Control Measures for Pharmaceutical Categories,” stating that merchants on Tmall Pharmacy would immediately suspend the sale of pharmaceutical products. The issuance of this notice has significantly impacted the industry’s survival and development. E-pharmacy companies may explore alternative business models, with future policies likely favoring an O2O model that integrates online and offline operations.
On May 21, Ping An Good Doctor announced the completion of a $500 million Series A financing round, reaching a valuation of $3 billion. Ping An Good Doctor has begun to build an internet healthcare ecosystem. This ecosystem is not limited to Ping An Good Doctor alone but serves as an open platform integrating services across various vertical sectors. These services are organically combined with the platform to collectively meet user needs.
On June 12, VCBeat and Taikang Online jointly launched the “Searching for China’s New Insurance Policies” initiative, ushering in a new phase of collaborative innovation in commercial health insurance. As a key payer in the healthcare sector, the integration of insurance with healthcare has become an irreversible trend.
In July, Shenzhen partnered with WeChat and Alipay to integrate payment channels into the medical insurance system, becoming the first city in China to enable mobile payments for medical insurance. In terms of mobile medical insurance payments, Alipay, WeChat, and Ping An have all implemented mobile payment solutions in Shenzhen. Given the broader trend toward digitization of the entire healthcare process, the adoption of mobile payments is inevitable.
On August 15, IBM Watson entered China to assist physicians in developing personalized, evidence-based cancer diagnosis and treatment plans. Technological breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence have made personalized, evidence-based diagnostic and therapeutic approaches possible. Artificial intelligence inVirtual assistants, medical imaging, drug discovery, nutrition, biotechnology, etc.Applications in the healthcare sector have become widespread, with disruptive technologies demonstrating significant potential to effectively enhance the capability and efficiency of disease treatment.
On October 6, Mr. Zhang Rui, founder of Chunyu Yisheng (Spring Rain Doctor), passed away due to a sudden myocardial infarction. The platform he dedicated himself to building, along with his vision, undoubtedly represents one of the most significant business innovations in today’s healthcare industry. Though he is gone, entrepreneurs who embrace change will continue to move forward.
On October 25, according to Xinhua News Agency, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the “Outline of the ‘Healthy China 2030’ Plan” and circulated a notice requiring all regions and departments to earnestly implement it in light of their actual conditions. At the national policy level, emphasis has begun to be placed on integrating health into all policies, so as to safeguard and ensure the people’s health in an all-round and life-cycle manner.Safeguarding the Entire Life CycleThe Blueprint for the Big Health Industry Is Poised to Unfold.
On November 15, VCBeat and Tencent Research Institute jointly released China’s first white paper on internet hospitals, providing the first comprehensive overview of such institutions in the country. The emergence of internet hospitals represents a significant milestone in healthcare reform, marking an important transition from networked hospitals to smart hospitals.
On December 23, the 2016 Top 100 Future Healthcare Companies list was released. The mission of the “Top 100 Future Healthcare Companies” 2016 China List is to identify Chinese innovative healthcare enterprises that truly represent the future of medical care within the healthcare industry. Across the landscape of China’s healthcare sector, a powerful force is reshaping the future of medicine. Emerging from rapidly evolving innovative fields, these companies are breaking through traditional barriers and establishing new rules. They constitute the core driving force of China’s future healthcare industry—the Top 100 Future Healthcare Companies!
The ten events mentioned above are merely a microcosm of the developments in the healthcare sector in 2016. The industry evolved from the “Year of Heroes” in 2014, through the “Surging Forward” phase in 2015, to the “Capital Winter” of 2016. However, analysis based on the Q3 China Digital Health Startup Investment and Financing Report released by VCBeat indicates that although the total transaction value declined, the number of transactions continued to rise year over year. There were 73 financing deals in the quarter, representing a 100% year-over-year increase and a 16.7% quarter-over-quarter growth. A comparison between transaction volume and value suggests that capital remains open to projects. The data show that the capital market has never experienced a true winter; rather, the real chill may lie in the core restricted areas that we have long sought to break into but have been unable to penetrate. We believe that the development of China’s healthcare sector has entered the eye of the storm.
Healthcare reform policies have been relaxed, with favorable pilot rules implemented in many regions, yet no significant effects have been observed; capital markets have continued to pour in investment, but failed to dispel the pessimistic narrative of a “winter” downturn; artificial intelligence and gene technologies keep advancing through iterative upgrades, yet they have not achieved substantial cost reductions.
Policies, capital, and technology have continuously unleashed a storm of sharp challenges. Medical innovation has entered its most turbulent phase, desperately colliding with the core of the healthcare sector, yet yielding limited results and progressing with great difficulty. Consequently, the current medical landscape presents a state of equilibrium, akin to the calm within and chaos without a storm.
We believe that a powerful force is reshaping the landscape of future healthcare. By leveraging technological advancements, they are achieving a leap in service delivery; against the backdrop of shifting public perceptions, they are subtly transforming our lives. Emerging from the rugged terrain of innovation, they break through traditional barriers to establish new rules. They are the core driving force of China’s future healthcare industry—the Future Healthcare 100.
We hope this force will become a sharp arrow piercing through the storm, shattering the inexplicable equilibrium and transcending the barriers of time and distance, to realize a Healthy China in the truest sense.
To break the equilibrium, in addition to identifying the core driving forces, it is essential to establish the right methodology. Methodologies are often derived from experience in problem-solving. We have summarized the six major challenges currently facing the future of healthcare in China:
1. Tiered Diagnosis and Treatment: Will Primary Care Become the Core Driver of Innovation and Transformation in Healthcare?
2. Business Model: Has the exploration of business models for online consultations reached its limit? Are there no more opportunities left?
3. Smart Healthcare: Will innovations from within to without, such as internet hospitals, be the true game-changer in medical innovation?
4. Investment: Is it truly a capital winter or a warm winter? Have we hit bottom, or is the downturn just beginning?
5. Insurance: After several years of exploration, has the time come for the awakening of commercial health insurance and the integration of internet healthcare with insurance?
6. Pharmaceutical Distribution: When Will the Policy on the Outflow of Electronic Prescriptions Arrive?
Co-initiated by VCBeat and Eggshell Research Institute, and jointly organized by Legend Capital, Ping An Insurance, Tasly Holding Group, Alibaba Cloud, China Renaissance’s Zhulu X, Fosun Tonghao, and Zhongguancun Science & Technology Leasing, the “2016 Eye of the Storm · Top 100 Future Healthcare Forum” will be held on December 23, 2016, at the Star Base in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The forum will unveil China’s inaugural Top 100 Future Healthcare list and the nation’s first White Paper on Future Healthcare, along with the launch ceremony for the “Pegasus Industry Acceleration Program.”
The “Pegasus Industry Acceleration Program” (hereinafter referred to as FMIA) was jointly initiated by VCBeat, Eggshell Research Institute, Legend Capital, Ping An Insurance Group, Tasly Holding Group, Alibaba Cloud, China Renaissance’s Zulu X, Fosun Tonghao, and Zhongguancun Science & Technology Leasing. At the critical juncture when healthcare innovation enterprises most need support and assistance, we join hands to pool our strengths and empower promising ventures striving to break through barriers. For more details about the program, please visit the Future Healthcare 100 Forum.
Forum Name:2016 Eye of the Storm · Future Healthcare 100 Forum
Event Time:December 23, 2016, 8:30–18:00
Event Venue:Beijing Chaoyang District Star Base
Event Agenda:
We are deeply immersed in the eye of the storm of our times, documenting the most turbulent moments of medical innovation. We anticipate that new technological breakthroughs and innovations will bring about a spring-like resurgence in the aftermath of the storm. On December 23, 2016, VCBeat sincerely invites you to join us in stepping into the future of healthcare.
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Registration Link:http://www.huodongxing.com/event/8360000161200