Sunnymum: Pioneering an O+O Model in Maternal and Child Healthcare

As mobile healthcare continues to evolve, “light consultation” services are no longer sufficient to meet users’ medical needs. Existing “light consultation” products indeed face several challenges, such as homogenization of registered physicians across different platforms and a lack of core resources involving renowned specialists and experts. For patients, gaining access to these experts remains a significant challenge. For experts, connecting with high-quality patients and demonstrating their professional expertise is equally difficult. This “asymmetry” has become a chasm between patients and doctors.

Jin Liang, CEO of the internet healthcare platform for women and children, “Sunshine Women & Children,” stated, “Patients lack professional medical knowledge, which often leads them to blindly seek out specialists. However, even within the same field, specialists may focus on different research areas, resulting in many patients failing to find the most suitable expert.” Mobile healthcare platforms focused on appointment registration and consultations are often disconnected from offline services; securing an online appointment does not necessarily guarantee that patients will find a doctor well-suited to treat their specific condition. Therefore, mobile internet healthcare requires a solution that can rationally allocate specialist resources and provide patients with integrated online-to-offline services.

“Sunshine Women and Children’s Hospital” has partnered with “Huizhong Medical Alliance,” China’s first pediatrician alliance, to create an “O+O” model that integrates online and offline services. This initiative aims to provide higher-quality care for women and children while exploring a new paradigm for internet-based healthcare, ultimately addressing the “asymmetry” between medical experts and patients.

“HuiZhong Medical Alliance” is the first pediatrician alliance in China, founded by Dr. Xu Pengfei, Associate Chief Physician of Pediatrics at China-Japan Friendship Hospital. It brings together authoritative experts from various pediatric specialties at prestigious institutions, including the China-Japan Friendship Hospital (under the Ministry of Health), Beijing Children’s Hospital, the Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Peking University People’s Hospital, and Peking University Third Hospital.

Xu Pengfei stated that the current state of pediatrics in China is characterized by overcrowded outpatient departments in large hospitals, while community hospitals and nearby secondary-level hospitals remain virtually empty. Even for common ailments like colds and fever, parents queue up at major hospitals to see specialists, which is not only inappropriate for the condition but also results in a significant waste of medical resources. Patients are unable to promptly consult their doctors regarding medication issues or other post-visit questions, forcing them to register and seek medical attention again, thereby further increasing healthcare costs. Given the nationwide shortage of more than 170,000 pediatricians in China, such inefficient use of medical resources inevitably exacerbates difficulties in accessing medical care and drives up healthcare expenses.

The goal of establishing “Huizhong Medical Alliance” is to change the status quo by building a comprehensive system for pre-consultation triage and post-consultation follow-up, ensuring that patients are treated by specialists in their respective fields.

Currently, “Huizhong Medical Alliance” has more than 250 pediatric physicians with various qualifications. After partnering with Sunshine Women and Children’s Hospital, the alliance will implement “tiered management” for physicians and cooperating hospitals, enabling each party to fulfill its specific role: expert-level physicians will focus on offline clinical consultations, while pre-consultation triage and post-consultation follow-up will be handled by young doctors or family physicians.

Regarding the collaboration with “Huizhong Medical Alliance,” Jin Liang pointed out that this partnership is grounded in user needs and experience. Following the agreement, both parties will launch the “Sunshine Women and Children’s Clinic” project, which involves establishing such clinics within partner hospitals. This initiative aims to effectively implement the policy on physicians’ multi-site practice, creating a three-dimensional, integrated “Internet Hospital for Women and Children” built on the “Sunshine Women and Children” platform, centered around expert specialists, and supported by primary care hospitals.

The service workflow of the “Internet Women’s and Children’s Hospital” is as follows. Young physicians first provide patients with online consultation, triage, and follow-up care, after which patients can directly visit nearby hospitals for specialist consultations and treatment. This approach optimizes the allocation of specialist resources, enabling them to better serve regional healthcare institutions. Furthermore, hospitals within the Pediatric Physicians Alliance can implement classified diagnosis and treatment for pediatric specialty diseases, offer a consultation platform for cases with unclear diagnoses or suboptimal treatment outcomes, and facilitate inter-hospital referrals.

Currently, the “Sunshine Women and Children’s Clinic” has partnered with 10 hospitals in its initial phase, including regional medical centers such as Beijing Kyoto Children’s Hospital, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, and China Coal General Hospital. By the end of 2015, the number of partner hospitals for the “Sunshine Women and Children’s Clinic” in the Beijing area will increase to 100. In 2016, the initiative will expand to Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and selected second-tier cities. In the future, they also aim to introduce a commercial insurance model to reduce patients’ medical expenses.

Currently, the “Sunshine Women and Children” team has more than 40 members and has secured RMB 18 million in Series A financing. It is reported that its registered user base has exceeded 3 million.