Sichuan Health Commission and Tencent Forge Strategic Partnership to Launch WeChat-Based Medical Appointment and In-Clinic Payment Services

On June 16, the 2016 “Internet Plus China” Summit, hosted by Tencent, was grandly held in Beijing. At the summit, the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission (hereinafter referred to as the “Sichuan HFPC”) entered into a strategic partnership with Tencent to actively explore new development models for healthcare in the internet era.

Shen Ji (right), Director of the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, and Wang Bo (left), Vice President of Tencent, sign a strategic cooperation agreement

To thoroughly implement the national “Internet Plus” action plan, effectively promote the innovative development of “Internet Plus Healthcare” services, and enhance medical standards and service efficiency through technological advancements, the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission has joined hands with Tencent to establish a Strategic Cooperation Leadership Group. Centered on promoting the application of “Internet Plus” in medical institutions across Sichuan Province, the two parties will leverage their respective strengths to explore new models of cooperation in “Internet Plus Healthcare.”

Strong Alliance: Sichuan Health and Family Planning Commission and Tencent Reach Strategic Cooperation

In March 2015, “Internet Plus” appeared for the first time in Premier Li Keqiang’s Government Work Report, becoming a new national strategy. Since then, Internet Plus has flourished across various industries in China. The collaboration between the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission and Tencent was also well-timed.

Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission and Tencent will serve as key strategic partners to each other. Both parties will establish a Strategic Cooperation Leadership Group as the governing body for their collaboration, with senior executives from both sides serving as members. Additionally, they will institute an ad hoc communication mechanism among senior leadership to provide decision-making support at critical junctures of the partnership.

In terms of specific cooperation, the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission will leverage its policy advantages and management resources in the field of health and family planning to assume responsibility for policy guidance, resource support, organizational coordination, and supervision and management of the collaboration.

Tencent, for its part, will leverage its internet platforms and media resources—including WeChat, QQ, Tencent News, and Tencent Cloud—to provide product platforms, technical resources, media resources, project coordination, and technical maintenance support for the collaboration.

At the same time, Tencent will leverage the “Sichuan Internet Plus Health Service Innovation Incubation Center,” accredited by the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, to collaborate on “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” incubation initiatives, thereby promoting the development of an Internet Plus medical and health industry chain platform in Sichuan.

In addition, Tencent will fully support and assist the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission in hosting the 2016 National “Internet + Healthcare” Services Conference.

Exploring the New “Internet + Healthcare” Model: WeChat Enables Appointment Registration and In-Clinic Payment

Group Photo of Representatives from the Sichuan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, Tencent, and Yihuan Medical

According to the agreement, this strategic cooperation primarily involves two aspects: first, enhancing the foundational infrastructure and operational efficiency of medical services; second, improving the quality of convenient public health services.

In terms of healthcare infrastructure, Tencent will leverage its accumulated advantages in big data to assist Sichuan’s health and family planning system in establishing a provincial cloud-based network for chronic disease monitoring and a big data center. Additionally, Tencent will provide free WeChat Enterprise Account services to Sichuan’s health and family planning system, facilitating improved hospital management efficiency and the formation of medical consortia.

In its efforts to enhance public convenience services, Tencent will leverage its technological capabilities to build WeChat-based medical service platforms for hospitals in Sichuan Province rated at Grade III, Class B or above. These platforms will enable convenient applications such as appointment scheduling and point-of-care payment. As Tencent’s technical service provider for the Southwest region, Chengdu-based internet healthcare company Yihuan Medical will provide comprehensive technical support for this collaboration.

Tencent will also leverage the “Healthy Sichuan” WeChat Service Account as a platform to establish a unified WeChat Wi-Fi authentication network across public hospitals in Sichuan Province, creating a convenient and accessible gateway for “Internet+” applications that benefit the public.