Baidu Launches 'Secretarial' Healthcare Services Through Medical-Internet Ecosystem Alliance

At the Medical Sub-Forum of the 2015 Baidu World Conference held on September 8, Zhang Yaqin, President of Baidu, announced the launch of the “Medical + Internet Ecosystem Alliance.” Zhang stated that, in line with Baidu’s newly released “Secretary-like” strategy, the company would meet user needs in a more intelligent manner and build a comprehensive, open mobile internet ecosystem. Within the “Medical + Internet Ecosystem Alliance,” Baidu will open its user access points to alliance partners, leveraging its big data and technological advantages to establish internet service capabilities for the modern medical service system, thereby addressing users’ diverse healthcare needs.

According to Li Zheng, General Manager of Business Development and Cooperation at Baidu’s Emerging Business Group, the “Medical + Internet Ecosystem Alliance” will, in the future, involve institutions from multiple sectors, including appointment registration, financial insurance, pharmaceutical manufacturing, wearable health devices, health services, hospital information systems, hardware services, telecommunications operators, and the internet industry. Currently, several companies, including Philips and Ping An, have already joined the alliance.

Healthcare is one of the most important vertical sectors in Baidu’s current “Connecting 3,600 Industries” strategy. Early this year, Baidu launched Baidu Doctor, a two-way selection platform for doctors and patients. Leveraging Baidu’s positioning technology, search capabilities, and precise matching through machine learning, the platform enables every individual to find the doctor best suited to their needs. Currently, nearly 2,000 hospitals are registered on Baidu Doctor, with over 130,000 participating physicians, and daily appointments exceeding 20,000. (For details, please refer to the VCBeat article:Baidu Doctor to Build the Premier Gateway for Doctor-Patient Services）

In addition to Baidu Doctor, Baidu Healthcare has successively launched a series of doctor-patient tools, including the Baidu Healthcare Direct Account, Baidu Medicine, and Baidu Medical Imaging. In the future, leveraging the “Healthcare + Internet Ecosystem Alliance” platform, Baidu Healthcare will be able to integrate various service resources, cover every stage of the patient’s medical journey, and deliver smarter, more attentive “concierge-style” services to users through multiple mobile terminals.

At the forum, in addition to announcing the establishment of the “Medical + Internet Ecosystem Alliance,” numerous representatives from government, business, and academia jointly explored the future development direction of mobile healthcare.

Zhang Feng, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Information under the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), shared several key priorities of the NHFPC in the field of healthcare informatization: First, actively promote the deep integration of emerging information technologies with medical services. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, a healthcare development plan will be formulated to further clarify the key directions, priority areas, major projects, and primary objectives for the deep integration of information technology and medical services, thereby further advancing the demand-driven development of healthcare-related initiatives.

Second, in 2013, the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) established the overall framework for population health informatization. In 2014, it integrated population health information systems. Starting this year, the NHFPC will prioritize certain applications, particularly those affecting residents’ healthcare experiences, actively promote pilot or demonstration projects, and develop a set of replicable and scalable implementation models, including new pathways, formats, and models for application development.

Third, special emphasis should be placed on building a multi-stakeholder participation mechanism. Zhang Feng stated that the development of health information technology must involve a collaborative framework where enterprises, medical institutions, and physicians participate; the government provides oversight; and relevant social industries engage. In this regard, all parties should fulfill their respective functions and roles. Only after such a mechanism is established can the National Health and Family Planning Commission further clarify rules, set standards, and strengthen supervision, thereby better providing safe and reliable services to the public.

Fourth, attention must be paid to individual privacy and information security issues. How to better safeguard citizens’ privacy and ensure the security of information systems are key considerations for the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC). Currently, the NHFPC is developing an informatization security plan while strengthening the implementation of standards and regulatory oversight.

Regarding how to protect patient privacy, Gao Jiechun, Director of the Hospital Management Institute at Fudan University and founder of China’s Best Hospitals Ranking, offered his perspective: There is no contradiction between privacy protection and information sharing. Internet-based electronic medical records are the most reliable. Drawing on international conventions, medical records have always been owned by hospitals; however, since these records contain patients’ private information, hospitals or physicians will bear legal liability if they disclose such confidential content. Furthermore, government leadership is crucial to the application of big data in healthcare. The government should take the initiative to provide a public information platform, ensuring that data users receive only de-identified data with personal privacy removed.

Gao Jiechun believes that internet healthcare must be closely integrated with public hospitals. “In China, 70% of hospitals remain public, and 90% of hospital beds are still located in public institutions. Only when public hospitals take the lead and private hospitals follow suit will internet healthcare have a future. In China, it is neither possible nor advisable for internet healthcare to bypass public hospitals, which constitute a vital force. The integration of online and offline services has become an inevitable trend in internet healthcare.”

In response to the industry’s prediction that internet healthcare carries significant legal risks, Gao Jiechun believes that changes in any medium or method will not alter the underlying legal relationships. The entities bearing legal liability will not change due to shifts in business models; in the past, it was hospitals, and in the future, it will still be hospitals. Overemphasizing legal risk factors will only exacerbate the bottleneck posed by already lagging legal safeguards and regulations for internet healthcare.