Ma Huateng's Five Proposals Highlight Tencent's Deep Commitment to Internet Healthcare
The Fourth Session of the 12th National People’s Congress is scheduled to open in Beijing on March 5. As a member of the Guangdong Delegation, Ma Huateng, NPC deputy and Chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings, answered reporters’ questions on the evening of March 3 regarding his proposals for this year’s “Two Sessions.”
Judging from his proposals this year, Ma Huateng has put forward “Internet Healthcare” as a standalone recommendation, making it evident that Internet healthcare has become an important component of Tencent’s business landscape.
Ma Huateng pointed out that, as the core safeguard for residents’ health, the current situation and challenges facing China’s healthcare service system have gradually become a consensus within the industry and society. Three major issues continue to hinder the development of the healthcare sector: unreasonable allocation of medical resources and persistent barriers to physicians’ multi-site practice; “data silos” persist among most hospitals, with personal electronic health records lacking accessibility and openness; and the training of healthcare professionals still fails to meet growing demand.
Regarding the above three questions, proposed by Ma HuatengSpecific Recommendationsfor：
1. Further implement the policy on physicians’ multi-site practice, and gradually eliminate the “hidden barriers” that prevent physicians from becoming “free agents.”
Physicians are transitioning from being “institution-bound” to becoming “independent practitioners.” While explicit policy-level barriers have been gradually removed, implicit obstacles remain inadequately addressed. Therefore, it is recommended that regulatory authorities urge local governments to implement policies supporting physicians’ multi-site practice. Complementary policies are also needed to progressively provide physicians with broader professional opportunities, allowing their medical ethics and technical expertise to achieve corresponding market value, thereby optimizing the allocation efficiency of healthcare resources.
2. Leverage information and communication technologies to explore and refine an internet-based tiered diagnosis and treatment system.
The Internet holds immense potential for enabling healthcare data sharing and interoperability. Therefore, establishing a healthcare data-sharing platform that allows medical professionals to promptly access patients’ health status, diagnosis and treatment details, and medication records—thereby enabling continuous tracking of patient health information and the provision of continuous, integrated healthcare services—is a critical prerequisite for implementing tiered diagnosis and treatment.
Telemedicine and mobile health can play a role in fostering collaboration across these tiers. He recommended that regulatory authorities actively support and synthesize the innovative and pilot experiences of the tiered diagnosis and treatment system, and, through practical and effective policy measures, actively encourage various social forces—including internet and technology companies—to participate in the local exploration and refinement of this system.
The medical data sharing platform not only helps patients access more accurate and comprehensive basic medical services, but also reduces communication costs for healthcare institutions, enabling collaboration between primary care hospitals and tertiary hospitals to monitor the effectiveness of disease treatment and interventions. It also allows health insurance authorities to control costs more rationally and precisely, shifting from extensive management to precision management by dynamically adjusting reimbursement rates and limits based on data.
3. Break down the “information silos” in hospitals, fully leverage mobile internet technologies to establish and improve the personal electronic health record system, and achieve accessibility and interoperability of relevant information.
A medical data sharing platform not only helps patients access more accurate and comprehensive primary healthcare services, but also reduces communication costs for medical institutions, enabling collaboration between primary care hospitals and tertiary hospitals to monitor the effectiveness of disease treatment and interventions. It also allows health insurance authorities to control costs more rationally and precisely, shifting from extensive management to precision management by timely adjusting reimbursement ratios and limits based on data.
Hospitals urgently need to implement electronic prescribing, enabling patients to access and portably manage their personal electronic health records—a critical foundation for residents to achieve self-managed healthcare.
On the basis of improving policies and regulations governing internet-based medical insurance payments, compliant third-party payment companies should be permitted to enter the market, allowing individuals to choose their payment providers and establishing a convenient online payment system and channels for “medical insurance.”
4. Strengthen grassroots medical training through tele-education and telemedicine to cultivate more qualified and trustworthy physicians.
Primary healthcare training can be strengthened through means such as remote education and telemedicine, to cultivate more qualified and trustworthy physicians. In particular, fostering the habit of using mobile medical devices among primary care physicians and improving health management for middle-aged and elderly individuals can support the goal of “ensuring basic coverage and strengthening primary care.”
5. Fully leverage the Internet, big data, and other tools to enhance the prevention and control capabilities for major diseases and public health emergencies.
The Internet Facilitates the Optimization of Medical Resource Allocation
Ma Huateng stated that fully leveraging emerging technologies such as the internet helps optimize the allocation of medical resources, improve the quality of healthcare services, and enhance public health levels, which holds significant and far-reaching importance for advancing the Healthy China initiative and achieving the overall socio-economic development goals outlined in the 13th Five-Year Plan.
In recent years, emerging technologies such as mobile internet have demonstrated significant potential in the healthcare sector. These include online health consultations, mobile health smart devices, and smart healthcare services on WeChat platforms. The integration of emerging technologies like the internet into healthcare services has led to an increasing array of innovative products and services that are convenient, accessible, and beneficial to the public.
Its specific manifestations are as follows:
1. Mobile Internet Optimizes Healthcare Service Processes.
An increasing number of enterprises and hospitals are actively leveraging mobile internet to provide convenient services such as online consultations, appointment scheduling, wait-time reminders, price calculation and payment, access to diagnostic reports, and medication delivery.
As of August 2015, there were 27,000 medical WeChat official accounts across China helping numerous healthcare institutions optimize their service processes by providing end-to-end patient services, including appointment registration, triage and guidance, inquiry of examination and test reports, and payment settlement. Among these, nearly 6,000 official accounts were operated by primary, secondary, and tertiary hospitals as well as grassroots medical and health institutions. In hospitals that have launched WeChat official accounts, 40% of patients use WeChat-based services, and WeChat Pay accounts for 20% of all payment methods, demonstrating a significant effect in diverting patient flow. According to surveys, patients who follow WeChat notifications for scheduled visits save an average of approximately 30 minutes in waiting time.
Guahao.com served 330 million patient visits in 2015, with daily appointment registrations currently nearing 200,000.
2. Mobile smart devices facilitate innovation in healthcare service models and enable personal health management, thereby effectively reducing substantial medical costs and improving the efficiency of health insurance utilization.
Internet-based healthcare is highly suitable for the daily management of chronic diseases. Wearable devices enable real-time collection of patient data, facilitating timely intervention and guidance to keep diseases under control at their early or preclinical stages, thereby delivering tangible benefits to patients.
Early prevention and timely management of chronic diseases can significantly slow their onset and progression, thereby substantially reducing the enormous costs of end-stage medical care, improving the efficiency of health insurance utilization, and alleviating the burden of excessive strain on health insurance systems.
3. New technologies such as cloud computing and big data help improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare services, optimizing service delivery models.
Clearly, Ma Huateng still recognizes that the powerful synergy between the internet and healthcare will inevitably create a vast market in the future, bringing significant business opportunities.
In 2014, Tencent consecutively invested in DXY and WeDoctor Group. At that time, Pony Ma stated, “We have conducted extensive research into the field of (internet healthcare), which is quite complex. For instance, we invested in Guahao.com; hospital online systems are highly intricate, often involving multiple vendors, making it difficult to migrate them to internet-based platforms. This is tied to the overall institutional framework, so it is not an easy task. We are starting with the simplest aspects, as internet healthcare is still in its nascent stage.”
In 2015, Tencent made significant investments in Zhuojian and Medlinker. Thus, during this year’s press Q&A session, Ma Huateng stated, “Regarding ‘Internet Plus,’ what impressed me most was the concept of smart hospitals. It encompasses a comprehensive suite of services, including appointment registration, queue calling, and medication pickup. This is one of the areas that most directly leverages mobile internet tools; by simply scanning a QR code at the hospital, the entire process can be seamlessly integrated.”
With the Two Sessions approaching, we anticipate more proposals related to internet healthcare, bringing greater hope to the industry’s development. VCBeat will continue to closely monitor relevant developments.