Alibaba Health Launches 'Parental Care Program' for Chronic Disease Management with Focus on Glucose Monitoring
On April 26, Ali Health Family Doctor officially launched the “Parental Care Plan,” providing intelligent chronic disease management services for elderly patients with chronic conditions. Leveraging smart hardware, internet connectivity, and data technologies, this service establishes real-time interactive chronic disease management among parents, their children, and physicians.
Just last week, the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting Family Doctor Contract Services,” approved by the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, emphasized the need to achieve breakthroughs in key areas such as service delivery models, service content, payment and fee collection, performance evaluation, incentive mechanisms, and technical support. Priority should be given to covering key populations, including the elderly, patients with chronic diseases, patients with chronic infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, individuals with severe mental disorders, pregnant and postpartum women, children, and persons with disabilities.
Phase I primarily serves patients with diabetes.
The “Family Doctor Blood Glucose Management Service” offered in Phase I of the “Parental Care Program” is primarily targeted at patients with diabetes. On the Ali Health app, once elderly individuals with diabetes sign up for a family doctor service and link their children’s accounts, their blood glucose readings are automatically uploaded and synchronized to both their children’s and their contracted family doctor’s mobile devices whenever they use a smart glucometer. Meanwhile, the Ali Health service platform generates regular health analysis reports based on the blood glucose test results, providing scientific recommendations for blood glucose monitoring and management to the elderly users and their families.
If the service platform fails to detect the elderly user’s blood glucose data for an extended period, or if abnormalities occur in the uploaded blood glucose data, it will immediately alert the elderly user and their children through multiple channels—including mobile applications, SMS, and phone calls—to encourage adherence to blood glucose monitoring or to adjust the subsequent blood glucose management plan. Additionally, family doctors will provide telephone consultation services to the elderly user based on these alerts.
China has gradually entered an aging society, with a growing number of elderly individuals living apart from their children. The National Working Commission on Aging once predicted that China would enter a period of rapid aging between 2015 and 2035, with the proportion of elderly people expected to reach 28% by 2035. The elderly population is also the primary group affected by chronic diseases. Taking diabetes as an example, the Report on the Nutritional Status and Chronic Diseases of Chinese Residents (2015) showed that the prevalence of diabetes among Chinese residents aged 18 and above was 9.7% in 2012, meaning that one in ten people may have diabetes, the majority of whom are elderly.
Whether daily dietary habits are reasonable, whether medications are taken on schedule, and what types of exercise are performed all have a significant impact on chronic diseases. However, elderly patients generally have weak awareness of self-health management and urgently need care and understanding from their children. Wang Han, General Manager of the Family Doctor Division at Alibaba Health, stated that the “Parental Care Program” leverages smart devices and mobile apps—tools familiar to younger generations and convenient for the elderly—to enable children to understand their parents’ true health status and “decipher” their genuine needs. “Care and greetings from children can emotionally encourage the elderly to take their health more seriously. The aim of the ‘Parental Care Program’ is to help children better understand their parents’ blood glucose levels, while preventing situations where parents conceal their condition, avoid treatment, or seek inappropriate medical advice. This facilitates collaborative blood glucose management and monitoring between chronic disease patients and their families,” said Wang Han.
Alibaba focuses solely on its open platform, gradually onboarding more third-party partners.
It is reported that Chen Xiaofeng, CEO of U Tang Health, a first-phase partner of Alibaba Health’s Family Doctor Open Service Platform, stated that by collaborating with U Tang to introduce chronic disease management services, Alibaba Health’s Family Doctor service can provide patients with intelligent blood glucose monitoring devices, real-time online health consultations, assessment follow-ups, health education counseling, and health analysis reports, thereby offering personalized blood glucose management solutions.
Wang Han told VCBeat that following the launch of U-Tang, Alibaba Health will partner with more companies providing diabetes management services to meet the diverse needs of users. “These partner companies are akin to merchants on Tmall, while Alibaba Health serves as a traffic platform. The two parties can drive user traffic to each other and share physician service resources.”
Explore More Chronic Disease Management Health Services
It is understood that on the Alibaba Health Family Doctor Open Service Platform, consumers can independently select smart device brands based on their needs and freely combine services from community physicians, doctors at tertiary hospitals, or high-quality medical institutions to access a variety of service types. Building on this foundation, Alibaba Health Family Doctor is exploring diverse forms of chronic disease management health services. Services such as blood pressure management, cardiovascular care, and maternal and child preventive healthcare are expected to be rolled out in the near future to meet the medical needs of different populations. Meanwhile, the technological capabilities supporting chronic disease management services will also see further enhancements.
Family doctors are a key entry point for Alibaba Health’s tiered diagnosis and treatment strategy.
Wang Han introduced that since November 2015, Ali Health has launched the Family Doctor Project, using grassroots medical institutions such as community hospitals as units to provide free mobile internet communication tools for community doctors and enrolled patients, aiming to establish a "familiarity-based" doctor-patient relationship between community doctors and residents.
Since the pilot launch of Alibaba Health’s Family Doctor service in Beijing’s Anzhen Community, it has expanded to 12 communities across China, including regions in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Hebei. Currently, Alibaba Health is promoting its “Cloud Hospital” initiative, which leverages internet and data technologies to establish a cross-regional, tiered diagnosis and treatment network within medical consortia. This network comprises Grade A tertiary hospitals, primary healthcare institutions where family doctors practice, and medical service providers, with family doctors serving as a critical entry point to the entire tiered healthcare system.