When Did Internet Healthcare 'Outrun Time'? Overview and Product Insights from Its Latest IPO Filing

The annual NetEase Future Technology Summit was held as scheduled in Beijing on October 15. The Mobile Healthcare Sub-forum invited numerous distinguished guests to deliver insightful speeches and engage in discussions on internet healthcare and medical big data. Although the industry remains in its early exploratory phase, future opportunities outweigh the risks. Successful healthcare projects are indeed reshaping the traditional healthcare landscape and changing our lifestyle habits. This is undoubtedly a testament to the power of technology and the benefits brought by innovation. Below are the highlights curated by VCBeat for sharing:

Topic 1: What Is Internet Healthcare Changing?

Ni Jianwen, Vice President of Alibaba Health

He first expressed three key insights regarding internet healthcare:
1 It is difficult for large public healthcare institutions to open up their core Hospital Information Systems (HIS). If these hospitals cannot share medical data, then “mobile health” will truly struggle to gain traction., without such data, it is difficult to truly transform the entire healthcare process;
2 If the barriers in the pharmaceutical and medical sectors are not dismantled,Telemedicine Cannot Integrate Pharmaceuticals into a Closed Loop, and “Mobile Health” Remains Largely Immobile；
3. When Will the Reimbursement Issue for Internet Healthcare Be Resolved? China Has Built the World’s Largest Medical Security System, but the Internet Healthcare Industry Is Still in Its Early Stages.

He believes thatThe state’s abolition of qualification reviews for internet-based healthcare and medical information is positive news for the industry, as apps providing any type of medical service no longer need to be filed with the government.Against such a favorable backdrop and at an opportune moment, Alibaba Health officially launched its “DiDi Doctor” home-visit service on October 15, leveraging the professional framework of “tri-medical linkage” to strive for meaningful change in the current landscape.

Ni Jianwen also stated that Alibaba is fully prepared to embrace the advent of online prescription drug sales.Alibaba firmly believes that the spring of online prescription drug sales is quietly approaching.

Wu Zongxun, Chief Product Officer of Ping An Good Doctor

Just a week ago, the number of registered users on Ping An Good Doctor surpassed 18 million.What Wu Zongxun feels most deeply is that every patient’s condition is unique and medical approaches vary widely; there is no one-size-fits-all solution through mere appointment registration or online consultation. The current state of mobile healthcare remains in the phase of capital investment.He believes that insurance remains the payer of last resort.

Ping An Good Doctor launched its family doctor service in October and has now introduced a 24/7 service offering for nighttime emergency care., after its launch, it received widespread acclaim from users, particularly during the three time slots of 11 PM, 12 AM, and 1 AM.In August, the first paid personal health management product, named Ping An Good Doctor Health Card, was launched to the market, with sales exceeding RMB 1 billion to date.demonstrating market recognition.

Wang Tao, Director of the Information Center, Beijing Tiantan Hospital

Wang Tao discusses how hospitals view internet healthcare from a hospital perspective:
1 Internet CompanyShould we establish a hospital or assist hospitals in managing medical insurance? He believesThe focus should be on assisting hospitals in developing community-based services and leveraging internet technology to provide better care for patients, rather than establishing independent hospitals.
2. Beijing’s medical insurance fund incurs annual expenditures exceeding RMB 10 billion. Currently, the reimbursement mechanism is straightforward: for instance, Tiantan Hospital is allocated an annual budget of RMB 400 million, with any overspending borne by the hospital itself.Which medical services should be covered or reimbursed, and how should they be screened and defined? This is a question.
3. From the hospital’s perspective, it is hoped that internet technologies can help avoid the waste of medical resources, fully leverage the role of primary care physicians, and guide patients to seek initial consultation at community health centers before referring them to large hospitals for further treatment.

Tiantan Hospital Has Developed a Chronic Disease Management System for Stroke, from initial assessment to rehabilitation constitutes a complete continuum, which also forms the platform for the cloud hospital. It aggregates all data, including those from community health centers, secondary hospitals, and tertiary hospitals, to establish standards. A dedicated quality control system is implemented to ensure data quality.

Currently, Beijing Tiantan Hospital is collaborating with the Ministry of Health and the National Health and Family Planning Commission to establish a National Data Center for Cerebrovascular Diseases. As Tiantan Hospital leads China in the field of cerebrovascular diseases, it is capable of formulating national-level diagnostic and therapeutic standards, thereby creating a standardized data center.

Chen Weiguang, Partner at BlueRun Ventures

Chen Weiguang believes that individuals coming purely from the healthcare system often grow increasingly apprehensive about the opportunities in internet healthcare, perceiving risks everywhere. However, he argues that it is essential to adopt a different perspective and challenge underlying assumptions.For instance, when we invested in Chunyu Doctors four years ago, many friends, including those within the healthcare system, argued that online consultations were highly unreliable. They maintained that medical care required face-to-face visits with physicians, questioning what issues online platforms could possibly resolve. However, it later became evident that a subset of patients did not require dedicated in-person consultations.
Patients can upload photos via their mobile phones to receive rapid feedback from physicians. Given that hospitals are often overcrowded, if online consultations can address the needs of a portion of patients, this demonstrates the genuine value of telemedicine.

This example illustrates that four years ago, when people examined this matter, they made judgments based on assumptions. As a result, they consistently perceived risks rather than opportunities, soValue Creation Requires Challenging Assumptionsonly then can one identify the emerging opportunities. Even Xingshulin, a company we invested in, is still developing gradually. At the time of investment, many skeptics questioned whether physicians truly needed digital tools or electronic medical records. In reality, there is indeed a certain level of demand; while it may not immediately meet the needs of every physician, there is undoubtedly a segment of doctors who require and utilize such solutions.

Topic 2: Big Data in Mobile Healthcare

Feng Donglei, Assistant to the President of Wonders Information Co., Ltd., and Executive Deputy Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Health Information Sharing Technology and Applications

Examples of Wonders Information’s projects in Shanghai: Shanghai Shenkang Hospital Development Center, established in 2006.As the first regional healthcare platform, it has evolved into a medical consortium project. To date, it has connected 38 Grade A tertiary hospitals, serving a patient population of 39 million. As of last year, its data volume reached 150 TB. Having prioritized data quality since 2008, the platform has achieved a data accuracy rate exceeding 95%.It can be described as the world's largest electronic health record database currently.The project has also received numerous honors, such as the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2013.

Wanda has also undertaken numerous regional health informatics projects, including in major cities such as Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Xi’an, Nanjing, and Ningbo. These projects have not only accumulated substantial amounts of data but also serve as hubs for high-quality medical resources, thereby establishing a strong foundation across three key areas: scientific research, clinical practice, and data management. This has laid a solid groundwork for Wanda’s nationwide development of healthcare big data.

By leveraging mobile internet, the health Internet of Things (IoT), and wearable devices, data services can extend to individual patients and their households, thereby filling the data gap between two medical consultations after a patient falls ill. To this end, Wanda has established the Shanghai Health Management Cloud project, achieving a closed-loop data system in terms of data density.

A noteworthy issue is that while traditional clinical research often employs a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, the pursuit of medical big data—such as collecting healthcare utilization data from the entire patient population of a city—represents a distinct form of big data. These are two different research paradigms. Furthermore, from a technical perspective, data types are undergoing significant changes. Previously, data were primarily clinical-centric operational records; now, they are integrated with internet-based data, health Internet of Things (IoT) data, meteorological and environmental data, and genomic data. The diversification of these data sources raises challenges regarding how to standardize them into highly semanticized data and how to integrate them with unstructured data. However, the most critical challenge remains the substantial gap between technology and business applications.

Another issue is the lack of a medical and healthcare knowledge base. If a database is established, how should big data be analyzed and utilized? The simplest approach is to import textbooks for machine processing, leveraging technical libraries capable of data processing, including analysis and mining. Based on the results of such analysis and mining, big data-driven health applications can be developed. The overall impression is that research should precede application, with a focus on conducting big data research first.

Luo Qibin, Founder of Qi Yun Technology

Luo Qibin shared his insights on the genomics industry. First, while it is widely acknowledged that the genomics sector is continuously rising and experiencing growth across investment circles and the broader market, has this growth reached a level that warrants immediate entry? Clearly, very few people are actually working in genomics, and there is widespread uncertainty about what genomics truly entails. So why is the genomics industry such a frequent topic of discussion? The reason lies in the sharp decline in the cost of genetic testing, which has fueled the current hype around big data.

The company positions itself as “Internet + Genomics,” rather than “Genomics + Internet.” He believes that the current bottleneck lies in the slow pace of commercializing genomic products. The journey from information to productization represents a strategic shift from a red ocean to a blue ocean.From a technical perspective, we can transform all information repositories into knowledge bases. The advocated shift from big data to small data means that bioinformatics must become knowledge-driven and product-oriented. Therefore,QiYun Tech first collects data and transforms it into information, then redefines scenarios and multidimensionality starting from that information. This enables individuals to turn data and information into products via search engines. What QiYun does is to assist genetic testing companies and pharmaceutical firms in the process of productization.

Fan Jing, Chief Medical Officer of Chunyu Doctors

On September 6, Chunyu officially launched a diabetes project in collaboration with the Health Development Center of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, while simultaneously initiating related projects in Wuhan, Qingdao, and Yubei District of Chongqing.
Given that so many companies have already entered the market, why is Chunyu still stepping in, and what does Chunyu plan to do?
Why Diabetes? From a macro perspective, approximately 11% of adults in China have diabetes, affecting a population of 100 million. The rates of diagnosis, control, and treatment target achievement among this group are remarkably low, with fewer than 10% of diabetic patients effectively managing their condition. Secondly, the state mandated the establishment of a basic healthcare delivery system in 2017, and the State Council issued guidelines on “Internet Plus.”

Since U.S. insurance companies cover the costs associated with app usage, many Chinese companies have recognized this opportunity, leading to a proliferation of diabetes management apps in the market. Chunyu believes that the true value of mobile health lies in leveraging internet-based approaches to reduce transaction costs among diverse stakeholders and enhance overall performance. Therefore, through this project, Chunyu aims to demonstrate two key points: first, that mobile health offers advantages in therapeutic efficacy; and second, that it delivers superior performance outcomes. Only by establishing both aspects can a complete logical framework be formed, thereby truly realizing the inherent value of mobile health.

Chunyu plays a role in information dissemination and resource integration within diabetes management services. Once patients are enrolled in the chronic disease management program, two physicians are assigned to each patient. The first is a general practitioner (GP), typically from the community health service center where the patient resides. The GP provides comprehensive intervention and guidance throughout the care continuum; patients can upload data, allowing the GP to monitor their physical activity and dietary habits and offer holistic guidance. Simultaneously, a diabetologist (diabetes specialist) is assigned. Since interventions led by GPs may sometimes be unsuccessful, the specialist provides technical support and professional expertise when needed.

Meanwhile, Chunyu will collect all relevant information during this process, including the patient’s condition, any complications that arise, and the costs associated with medical visits and treatment.

In addition to its diabetes initiatives, Chunyu Yisheng officially established a strategic partnership with a Mayo Clinic subsidiary on the morning of October 15. As one of the world’s most renowned medical institutions, the Mayo Clinic offers a chronic disease management platform capable of providing comprehensive management for 27 types of chronic conditions. Chunyu aims to introduce this complete set of the world’s most advanced concepts and methodologies for chronic disease management into China., and truly make our own contributions to China's healthcare system reform and patients' health.