How Mobile Internet Empowers Physicians: Enhancing Efficiency, Learning, and Care Delivery

Many countries around the world are grappling with insufficient healthcare service supply, largely due to a shortage of healthcare professionals, particularly physicians. As the cornerstone of the healthcare system and providers of the vast majority of medical services, physicians play a pivotal role. The quantity, quality, and motivation of physicians fundamentally determine the overall standard of a nation’s healthcare. Physicians also serve as the ultimate endpoint for services provided by hospitals, health insurance providers, and pharmaceutical companies, holding decisive authority in treatment decisions. The medical profession is characterized by prolonged training periods, high stress levels, and significant risks. Enhancing both the number and quality of physicians, as well as improving their work efficiency and output, presents a common challenge for many nations. Furthermore, with advancements in medical technology, modern physicians must process information volumes and complexities far greater than those faced by their predecessors. Internet-plus-cloud computing technologies can significantly boost physicians’ work efficiency, improve healthcare quality, and make medical practice more manageable.

Unlike serving hospitals (To Business, 2B) and serving the general public (To Customers, 2C), products designed for physicians can be categorized as targeting the professional market (To Professionals, 2P). In summary, mobile internet can play a significant role in the following three scenarios: 1) professional learning and clinical reference; 2) enhancement of work efficiency; 3) expansion of the temporal and spatial reach of services.

Professional Study and Clinical Reference

Medicine is a rapidly evolving discipline, and being a physician is a profession that demands lifelong learning and training. Due to demanding work schedules, mobile internet technology enables doctors to make use of their fragmented time. There have been numerous mobile innovations, ranging from traditional exam preparation and video-based learning to professional clinical decision support.

Epocrates, the world’s first publicly listed mobile health company (acquired by Athenahealth in 2013), falls into this category. It provides physicians with comprehensive medication and clinical references via a smartphone app, covering 80% of clinicians across the United States. Another company, Skyscape, enables physicians to conveniently purchase electronic versions of professional textbooks on their mobile devices. UpToDate, renowned for its comprehensive and timely content, has become an indispensable clinical companion for physicians abroad. Domestic medical apps in China, such as Drug Assistant and Yi Kou Dai, also belong to this category.

In the future, there is significant room for improvement in the personalization of physician education and clinical decision support. For instance, with regard to the thousands of knowledge points covered in the medical licensing examination, can we rapidly identify users’ areas of weakness and provide targeted training? When clinicians encounter unclear issues in practice, how can they most quickly find the most accurate answers from various sources? While mobile phones offer an excellent entry point, greater innovation will likely depend on content accumulation and data utilization.

Improve Work Efficiency

Due to the complexity of processes, stringent quality requirements, and the unique condition of each patient, healthcare services cannot be standardized like an assembly line. Every step in this process presents opportunities for improving efficiency.

Take the process of physicians collecting patient information and documenting clinical conditions as an example. Many physicians complain about inefficient communication with patients, who often struggle to recall answers to various questions. If patients could prepare their responses in advance while waiting, it would significantly improve physicians' efficiency. Furthermore, many physicians lament the time-consuming nature of writing medical records. In fact, in many foreign countries, physicians utilize voice input, with speech recognition systems and medical transcriptionists organizing their medical record data. For instance, the U.S. startup Augmedix is attempting to use Google Glass to assist physicians in documenting medical records. A foreseeable future scenario involves physicians wearing Google Glass during patient consultations and physical examinations, with the device recording patient information and physician-patient dialogues. By the time the physician returns to their computer, a draft of the medical record will already be prepared, requiring only a brief review.

Another example is the generation of discharge instructions. In outpatient and emergency settings, physicians often need to repeatedly write identical instructions for similar types of patients. This is not only time-consuming, but patients also struggle to remember the details after returning home. Given that the average consultation time at large hospitals is merely five minutes, physicians are unable to provide patients with detailed explanations. Exit Writer is an application that addresses this issue by creating templates for discharge instructions covering more than 3,000 common clinical conditions. Physicians can simply make minor modifications before printing or sending the instructions to patients. This approach saves time and effort, minimizes omissions, and facilitates easy access for patients.

The Spatiotemporal Nature of Extended Services

Healthcare is a highly individualized, private, and professional service. Doctors and patients establish a contractual relationship through appointment registration, meeting one-on-one in consulting rooms or wards at scheduled times to address health issues. For thousands of years, this service has been localized. The advent of the internet has expanded the temporal and spatial boundaries of healthcare: doctors can conduct consultations for patients thousands of miles away, respond to questions raised by patients days earlier, and manage their discharged patients anytime and anywhere. For instance, Professor Li Xiaoguang from the Department of Neurology at Peking Union Medical College Hospital uses the Binglijia (Medical Record Folder) software to manage hundreds of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients he has treated, regularly collecting patient feedback and prognostic data to adjust treatment plans for those in need. To some extent, the internet can serve as a doctor’s “third hand” and “second brain,” helping to reduce information asymmetry between doctors and patients and maximizing the value of physicians’ knowledge-based services. Common models in China include online consultations (e.g., Haodf, 120ask, Chunyu), follow-up care (e.g., Haodf), and remote consultations.

Alvin Toffler, the author of *The Third Wave*, once predicted that information technology would bring greater transformative value to industries characterized by high knowledge intensity and complex processes. Healthcare is a quintessential example of such an industry. By enabling physicians to work more efficiently and effectively, the Internet creates greater benefits for patients, much like a rake in the hands of a farmer or a drill in the hands of a worker.

This article is republished by VCBeat with authorization from Zhang Yusheng. The views expressed are those of the author alone and do not represent the position of VCBeat. Zhang Yusheng, M.D., is the founder of Apricot Forest.