Under the catalysis of the epidemic, internet medical treatment has developed rapidly. According to the data, the number of Internet hospitals in China has increased from more than 100 in 2018 to more than 1700 at present. In the context of the rapid integration and application of digital technology, Internet medicine has become an important way to promote the coverage of high-quality medical resources at the grass-roots level.
Not long ago, the State Council issued the “14th five year plan” for the development of digital economy, proposing to accelerate the development of Internet hospitals and promote internet medical services such as health consultation, online consultation and remote consultation. At the national two sessions this year, the government work report proposed to promote the extension of high-quality medical resources to cities and counties, improve the ability of grass-roots disease prevention and treatment, and make the people get better medical services nearby.
How can Internet healthcare better serve the grass-roots people, especially the population of more than 700 million counties? Through technological innovation, what future will Internet healthcare bring? The reporter of China Economic Weekly conducted an interview during the two sessions.
Move the hospital to the cloud, and a computer can link County, township and village medical resourcesP align = “center” let the grass-roots people “one mobile phone manage health”
“In recent years, the number of township health centers and community hospitals has continued to increase. Why do patients still leave their homes and seek treatment in large hospitals? The reason is the poor capacity of grass-roots medical institutions.” Wang Jingcheng, deputy to the National People’s Congress and chairman of the medical group of Subei people’s Hospital, said.
In recent years, Wang Jingcheng has been promoting the flow of high-quality medical resources from the eastern region to the central and western regions. With the technology of “Internet plus medical”, through remote medical treatment, remote imaging, remote pathology, tele ECG and remote rounds, people in remote areas can enjoy high-quality health and health services and improve the medical experience of primary medical institutions.
The uneven distribution of medical resources is a long-term problem facing China. High quality medical resources are concentrated in eastern coastal cities and economically developed large and medium-sized cities, while the ability of township and rural grass-roots medical services lags behind. With the continuous development of digital technology in the medical field, the implementation of high-quality medical resources at the grass-roots level has been given more possibilities.
Ling Feng, member of the National Committee of the Chinese people’s Political Consultative Conference and chief expert of the Department of Neurology of Xuanwu Hospital, said that Internet technology is particularly important for grass-roots medical treatment. It can even be said that it is an “indispensable tool” to improve the level of grass-roots medical treatment. The important feature of internet medical treatment is the equalization, which can break through regional restrictions and help change the current situation that it is difficult and expensive for people to see a doctor, which is of great significance to change the current situation of unbalanced medical resources in China.
What practical value does Internet technology bring to improving the ability of primary medical services?
“It can be concluded vividly that internet medical treatment has brought ‘three clouds’ to the grass-roots level: cloud hospital, cloud pharmacy and cloud service, which help solve the pain points of grass-roots medical treatment.” Zhu Shunyan, chairman and CEO of Alibaba health, said.
Cloud hospital includes all-round medical services such as intelligent guidance, remote consultation, medication guidance and health science popularization, so as to enable grass-roots patients to achieve “one mobile phone for health”, and also help doctors efficiently manage and serve patients. Cloud medicine room allows people in remote areas to easily buy drugs and household appliances online. At the same time, it makes Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) “buy the right medicine” and “buy good medicine” by using safe medication AI, traceability code, intelligent logistics and other technologies, as well as suitable drugs that cannot be bought in local counties. Cloud services move a series of out of hospital services such as chronic disease management to the cloud, which greatly enriches users’ health programs.
In Zhu Shunyan’s view, behind the “three clouds” is the close integration of the medical and health industry and digital technology. “From medical knowledge map, cloud computing to medical AI, digital technology has expanded the accessibility, efficiency and quality of medical and health services at the grass-roots level. We believe that digital technology has great potential to improve the service capacity of grass-roots medical services.”
According to the statistical report on the development of China’s Internet, as of December 2021, the number of online medical users reached 298 million, with a year-on-year increase of 38.7%, which is the fastest growing class of applications. In Alibaba health, there are hundreds of millions of online consultation services in a year. Among them, more than half of the patients come from grass-roots areasP align = “center” Internet solutions for chronic disease management
“In the investigation and visit at the grass-roots level, we found that the elderly, the disabled and the patients with chronic diseases in many villages in underdeveloped areas need more help.” Member Ling Feng said.
There are more than 300 million people with chronic diseases in China, and the burden of chronic diseases has accounted for 70% of the total disease burden, up to trillions of yuan per year. The healthy China action proposes to continuously reduce the premature mortality of major chronic diseases and strengthen the screening and early detection of chronic diseases.
“With the help of the ability of digital technology, Internet medicine can serve the massive demand that the offline system can not bear, and can also accompany patients at all times to help them carry out scientific chronic disease management, and provide very important doctor support, drug support, intelligent medical devices, medical education and other support.” Zhu Shunyan said.
Last year’s Double Ninth Festival, Taobao launched the function of “taking medicine bottles to buy medicine”. When the mobile phone turns on the “Taobao photo” function and aims the camera at the medicine box, the drug identification can be completed relatively accurately and the corresponding page can be entered. In fact, many patients with chronic diseases are the elderly, and the Chinese common names of many drugs have long names and many rare words, which increases the obstacle to buying drugs for the elderly. The function of “taking medicine bottles to buy medicine” provides convenience for elderly patients with chronic diseases with the blessing of digital technology.
The value of Internet medicine in chronic disease management has been recognized by more and more people. According to the semi annual report data of Alibaba health in fiscal year 2022, the number of users with chronic diseases increased by 170% year-on-year.
At the grass-roots level, the effect of Internet chronic disease management has been proved by practice. In November 2020, Zhejiang Tiantai County People’s Hospital launched the country’s first county-level “cloud medical community” with the technical support of Ali health and Xiniu medical, covering 120 medical institutions in the county, realizing the integrated management of county, township and village medical resources and delivering high-quality services to the “field”. In one year, the rate of county visits increased by 5.3%. The coverage rate of family doctors contracted significantly increased, and the rate of control of chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes increased by 20.2%.
Ma Wenfang, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and a village doctor in suliuzhuang village, dagangli Township, Tongxu County, Henan Province, has been engaged in village medicine for more than 50 years. As the most grass-roots medical force, village doctors play an irreplaceable role in the front line of rural chronic disease prevention and control.
“Through remote diagnosis via the Internet, Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) at home, you can receive the treatment of a big doctor in a big hospital. You don’t have to worry about the delay of your condition, and you don’t have to run a long way to see a doctor as soon as you get sick.” Ma Wenfang suggested that we should strengthen the construction and improvement of rural Internet medical care, and make Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) better enjoy the healthy life brought by the Internet through hardware and technology upgrading. At the same time, it is also hoped that through Internet remote training, the technical ability of grass-roots doctors can be improved and better provide services for villagersP align = “center” look forward to the future medical scene landing at home
The vigorous development of Internet medicine is inseparable from a strong technical base.
In recent years, with the rapid development of cloud computing, AI, 5g and other technologies, medical and health services have a wealth of innovative practices.
Taking medical AI as an example, various intelligent algorithms can help improve medical, drug and chronic disease management services. For example, intelligent guidance can help patients quickly find a suitable doctor during online consultation, and help doctors make a summary after consultation, so as to improve efficiency at the patient and doctor sides at the same time.
“For digital technology, the most important thing is the application scenario. A technology without a good application scenario must not be a good technology. Primary health care is the most temperature efficient application scenario of digital technology.” Zhu Shunyan said.
In his opinion, the most basic and urgent thing for the application of digital technology in the medical field is to build a medical knowledge map. This is also the fortress Ali health is making great efforts to conquer. Medical knowledge map is not only the basic technology of medical AI, but also the basic technology of “three clouds” (cloud hospital, cloud pharmacy and cloud service). Through the mining, association, reasoning and integration of dynamic data, as well as the construction of unified professional terms and coding standards, a standardized, efficient and intelligent medical knowledge base is formed, so as to improve the level of online diagnosis and treatment, drug supply, chronic disease management and medical science popularization.
With the continuous iteration of technology, more telemedicine services are no longer difficult to reach. Turning to the future of the industry, Zhu Shunyan said that one of the most expected scenarios is that various medical level devices and applications can be implemented at home, providing users with some medical level solutions suitable for home and sharing pressure for hospitals.
To reach this future vision, the industry also needs to work together to solve some obstacles, including the popularization of medical grade equipment to families. At present, products such as intelligent sphygmomanometer, blood glucose meter and health monitoring bracelet have entered the family. With the continuous iteration of technology, medical grade devices will be closer and closer to users.
“The state has always strongly supported the rapid development of the internet medical industry on the basis of standardization. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, people’s health awareness has been greatly enhanced and they are more accustomed to online medical and health services. It can be said that we are in a good era of industry development.” Zhu Shunyan said that through peer cooperation and technological iteration, people’s medical and health experience takes on a new look, which is very exciting and really valuable to the society.
