“We really want to do something at a critical time. Take the words of our supply chain colleagues. We really want to rush out to deliver medicine to patients.”
This is the strong voice of many internet medical practitioners recently.
At present, the epidemic situation in Shanghai is still grim. Based on the needs of epidemic prevention and control, the health security of special groups such as the elderly, children, pregnant women and patients with chronic diseases has been challenged. In the face of this situation, many internet medical enterprises are trying to give full play to the advantages of Internet medicine and help solve the medical problems of patients.
From launching online free clinic to opening up drug distribution, internet medical enterprises have been taking action one after another.
launch free clinic
Since March, the cumulative number of local positive infections reported in this round of epidemic in Shanghai has exceeded 130000. Recently, the daily number of infections in Shanghai is still high. The epidemic suddenly disrupted the normal pace of medical treatment for many people. Some hospitals had to temporarily close offline clinics based on the needs of epidemic prevention and control, and some patients were unable to go out for medical treatment because of closure.
How to protect residents’ medical needs is a test. Relevant departments in Shanghai are trying to solve the problem. At present, the emergency treatment of medical institutions at all levels in the city remains open. All districts have established a docking mechanism between communities and medical institutions, opened up emergency medical treatment channels, and focused on meeting the necessary medical needs of patients with acute and critical diseases, pregnant women, children, hemodialysis, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. For patients with chronic diseases, the family doctor team of the street community health service center is also doing a good job in dispensing services and medical and health consultation.
A number of internet medical enterprises told the first financial reporter: “at present, how to help patients solve the problem of ‘difficult medical treatment’ through the advantages of information exchange and resource integration of the Internet is the value of developing Internet hospitals.”
In order to help Shanghai tide over the epidemic and protect the health of patients at home, many internet medical enterprises acted quickly and tried to deploy platform doctor resources with the advantages of the Internet to meet the urgent medical needs of patients.
As early as March, many internet medical platforms, including good doctor online, Ping An Health (stock abbreviation “good doctor Ping An”, 01833. HK), Ali health (00241. HK), huiyitianxia and so on, have launched online free clinic activities.
The relevant person in charge of good doctor online told the first financial reporter that from March 23 to March 29, the platform launched the live free clinic activity of “fighting the epidemic with one heart and protecting health together”. This activity was actively participated by 213 doctors from 23 public hospitals in Shanghai. The cumulative duration of the live broadcast exceeded 10000 minutes, helping more than 130000 patients in total.
“How to control blood sugar under the epidemic?” “What if wisdom teeth become inflamed during closed management?” “The epidemic is at home. What should I do if my shoulders and knees are sore?” “Children’s vaccination”, “frequently asked questions during pregnancy”, “self-management of glaucoma patients”, “what if you can’t recheck recently after myopia surgery?” Good doctor online launched more than 200 live broadcasts, covering almost all specialist directions such as internal and external women and children, and helping to solve the medical needs of many citizens during isolation.
Since March this year, in the face of the sharp increase in the pressure of epidemic prevention and control in many parts of the country, Ping An Health has also launched a team of internal and external doctors from 20 departments such as internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, traditional Chinese medicine and dermatology to provide 7 24-hour online consultation services for residents with medical and health needs. Among them, in Shanghai, the platform has also opened an online “epidemic diagnosis” channel, Provide residents with 7 24-hour free online consultation service.
Similarly, Alibaba Health recently launched online free clinic activities to provide online consultation services for patients in need during special periods, and received positive responses from more than 1000 doctors. According to the introduction, users in Alipay search “epidemic”, click on “epidemic prevention and control area”, find “doctor inquiry” can enter Ali health Internet hospital epidemic prevention clinic area, every day, more than 500 doctors from all over the country provide online services. The first financial reporter learned from Ali health that the free clinic doctors come from respiratory department, pediatrics, internal medicine, dermatology and other departments, which can meet the different inquiry needs of patients.
Online consultation is becoming more and more popular among patients. Recently, the amount of online consultation on some platforms has shown an upward trend.
The person in charge of Weimai platform told the first financial reporter that the online consultation volume of its platform has shown an obvious upward trend recently. Under the epidemic situation, due to the fear of difficult medical treatment, the psychological anxiety of many patients has increased significantly. Its platform also helps patients alleviate their psychological pressure and medical pressure through joint public hospitals in the form of epidemic prevention education, disease science popularization and online consultation.
In addition to the internet medical platform, many offline hospitals in Shanghai have also opened internet medical services, extending offline diagnosis and treatment services to online. At present, 85 medical institutions in Shanghai have been approved to obtain the qualification of Internet hospital.
Taking Shanghai Tongji Hospital as an example, since March 2022, affected by the epidemic, the hospital has implemented closed-loop management, but the hospital’s Internet hospital is still running as usual. The Internet Hospital of Shanghai Tongji Hospital has also taken measures such as increasing the number of numbers and increasing the scheduling of medical staff, trying to meet the medical needs of patients. Recently, the cumulative number of registered users and visits of the Internet Medical Hospital of the hospital has increased significantly, and the number of prescriptions is many times that of the past.
guaranteed drug supply
In general, internet medical uses information technology to integrate the resources of multiple medical institutions, which can provide patients with different demand services such as pre consultation, appointment and registration, online medical treatment and drug distribution. To a certain extent, it can effectively alleviate the pressure of offline outpatient service, realize more uniform allocation of medical resources and ensure the efficient operation of the medical system. Under the epidemic situation, the existence of internet medical treatment has timely solved the patient’s consultation needs.
Fang Xiaoqin, who lives in Changning District of Shanghai, has been trying to help some elderly people in his community seek medical treatment recently. “The online consultation platform has well solved the problems of consultation and prescribing, but many cooperative third-party pharmacies on the platform still need to undertake drug distribution through express delivery. Due to the suspension of express delivery, it is still difficult for the elderly to obtain drugs in time.”
Recently, many internet medical enterprises told the first financial reporter that limited by factors such as inconvenient travel and express logistics, how to solve the problem of drug distribution has become a major problem.
Since the normalization seal control was opened in Shanghai at the end of March, the medication of many patients mainly depends on the mutual assistance of the people in the community, neighborhood committees, volunteer dispensing, and emergency channels. For berberine, montmorillonite powder, methylnitrate file, ibuprofen, amoxicillin and other common drugs, patients can obtain them relatively easily. However, the purchase channels of controlled prescription drugs such as promethasone tablets are not smooth, but drug withdrawal is not conducive to patients’ control of their condition.
Some internet medical platforms are also trying to overcome the difficulties faced by patients in Shanghai.
Since the end of March, Huiyi world internet medical platform has launched a series of popular science live broadcast and public welfare free clinic activities to meet the medical needs of patients during the epidemic, and served patients in the cloud together with famous doctors in Shanghai.
Recently, the platform has been exploring how to combine different forces to solve the problem of “the last kilometer” of drug distribution.
On April 7, huiyitianxia officially launched the “urgent delivery of drugs” service, which combined with o2o cooperative pharmacies to solve the problem of difficulty in buying drugs for patients with chronic diseases. Patients with chronic diseases choose Offline pharmacies within the distribution scope on the “urgent delivery of drugs” applet, submit consultation information, wait for professional doctors to issue prescriptions and review orders, and are expected to buy prescription drugs quickly.
At 3 p.m. on the day when the “urgent delivery of drugs” service was launched, the patient received the first o2o offline dispensing order from a patient in Huangpu District, Shanghai. At 8:40 p.m. on the same day, the patient received drugs from the Shanghai No.1 Pharmacy Co.Ltd(600833) store in Nanjing East Road, 4.5 kilometers away, to control prostate disease.
The reporter said that under the condition of rapid expansion of the packing and distribution of the relevant stores of Puxi medical, the person in charge of Puxi medical has given priority to the rapid expansion of the packing and distribution of the relevant stores of Puxi medical. According to the plan, o2o cooperative stores will continue to increase. In addition to the existing pharmacies such as Haiwang Xingchen and Shanghai No.1 Pharmacy Co.Ltd(600833) , they will also work with well-known offline pharmacies such as Yifeng and Guoda. It is expected that more than 200 stores will be launched urgently during the epidemic period to provide a wider range of drug distribution services. In terms of products, the platform is also actively coordinating stores and pharmaceutical manufacturers to expand types and reserves, and successively complete the full coverage of cardiovascular, endocrine, respiratory and digestive, nephrology chronic disease drugs and family standing drugs.
In addition to Huiyi world, other platforms are also running around to help patients find drugs and anti epidemic personnel find anti epidemic materials.
On April 6, Fosun health, a family active health management brand, joined hands with Guoda pharmacy to launch the “drug help Registration Platform” urgently. On the premise of strictly abiding by local epidemic prevention measures, it coordinated and arranged to promote performance services, spared no effort to alleviate the pressure of Shanghai residents on home dispensing, provided Shanghai residents with drug supply and medication services, and helped Shanghai Internet drug purchase channels “recharge”.
It is reported that the Fosun health medication help registration platform covers a variety of drug types such as family standing drugs, chronic disease drugs and antigen detection kits. The help platform launched will actively dispatch resources, dynamically adjust transportation capacity, match the supply mode according to the demand, and try its best to meet the medication needs of users according to the sealing and control situation of the epidemic situation in each district.
As a digital medical and health enterprise born and growing up in Shanghai, 1 pharmaceutical network experienced the stage of covid-19 pneumonia outbreak in 2020, and actively undertook the supply guarantee of anti epidemic supplies and drugs at that time. Since the epidemic situation in Shanghai became severe, the company also established the “anti epidemic headquarters” for the first time to coordinate the relevant departments and manpower of the company to participate in the war.
At the same time, as a living material support enterprise for epidemic prevention and control in Shanghai, up to now, 1 drug network has successively launched support services including online free clinic, covid-19 antigen detection product supply, chronic disease continuation formula, enterprise group epidemic prevention supplies and exclusive drug procurement channels. The company has opened a through train from the headquarters of Kunshan East China operation center to Shanghai, providing a fast and guaranteed green channel for drugs and materials needed to support the fight against the epidemic in Shanghai.
On April 7, the first batch of orders for epidemic prevention supplies and drugs purchased by enterprises and groups were sent from the headquarters of Kunshan East China operation center of 1 pharmaceutical network to Shanghai and successively handed over to Shanghai Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone Development Co.Ltd(600663) public security department, Zhoujiadu sub district office, Zhoujiadu police station, Pudong New Area Social Organization Cooperation Promotion Association, Pudong E-Commerce Association, Zhangjiang group and other institutions and groups to ensure the health and safety of these key anti epidemic units and personnel. After the procurement needs of the first batch of enterprise teams are collected and summarized through the exclusive procurement channel of 1 pharmaceutical network, 1 pharmaceutical network will arrange special personnel to connect with each institutional team, and coordinate to open the internal green channel through the “anti epidemic headquarters”, so as to accelerate the order and warehouse delivery process, so as to ensure that the first batch of materials can be delivered to the anti epidemic front line as soon as possible.
In view of the inconvenience of purchasing drugs and the difficulty of dispensing drugs for patients in Shanghai, 1 drug network is racing against time to coordinate all parties to get through the obstacles and actively solve them. The company is providing patients with “chronic disease medication registration” and other services through doctors and pharmacists, and will arrange special personnel to follow up the urgent medication demand, so as to alleviate the problem of “medication difficulty” caused by the closure and control of the epidemic situation.
On the afternoon of April 9, 1 pharmaceutical network officially launched the service of “Shanghai chronic disease medication and epidemic prevention material purchase”, which solves the problem of “difficult medication” of community residents through the centralized processing scheme of community medication orders. According to the distribution rules, within 10km from the pick-up point, the purchase and distribution shall be carried out uniformly by the community as a unit, and each community shall assign a person to collect and distribute the demand. Conditional communities and individuals can also go to the pick-up point by themselves or arrange riders to pick up the goods.
Dr. Yu Gang, co-founder and executive chairman of China Pharmaceutical network, told China Business News: “as a digital medical and health enterprise born and raised in Shanghai, it should be more responsible, overcome difficulties, give full play to the advantages of Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) integration and intelligent supply chain, and help more people in need.”
transportation capacity is gradually recovering
Before the outbreak, the existence of Internet medicine was to solve the problems of unbalanced supply and demand and low utilization efficiency of medical resources. By linking high-quality resources and providing professional guidance, it provided differentiated supplements for people with multi-level needs.
After the emergence of the epidemic, the demand for internet medical treatment broke out and became a force that can not be ignored in the fight against the epidemic. Users’ understanding and recognition of internet medical services are also being strengthened, and the trend of online medical and health services has been accelerated.
Accenture’s 2021 internet medical survey shows that nearly half of the respondents have improved the utilization rate of internet medical services compared with the year before the covid-19 epidemic. More than 90% of the respondents are willing to choose online inquiry, online appointment registration and online drug purchase in the next year, and more than 80% of the respondents are willing to choose remote consultation in the next year. Frost Sullivan predicts that the scale of China’s Internet medical and health market will grow rapidly to 1.5 trillion yuan in 2025, and the penetration rate will increase from 4.3% in 2020 to 13.2%.
Since 2020, outbreaks have occurred in many places across the country, and each wave of epidemic has put forward different tests for the internet medical industry. Enterprises need to provide different solutions to meet the different medical needs of patients.
The relevant person in charge of good doctor online told the first financial reporter: “Under the prevention and control of the epidemic, internet medical treatment has become an important channel for patients to seek medical treatment. They can contact professional doctors in time and get treatment suggestions. After the outbreak of the epidemic in Shanghai, the treatment of many isolated patients is facing interruption. For many patients with chronic diseases, they can still keep in touch with their attending doctors for a long time through the internet medical platform, report the changes of their condition in time and return for consultation online, so as to avoid interruption due to the epidemic Treatment was given. “
Ali health also told the first financial reporter that in the context of the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the company is committed to using technology to improve the accessibility of high-quality medical resources, reduce the pressure on offline tight medical resources, and maximize the convenience of residents’ treatment and medication.
At present, relevant departments in Shanghai are also doing their best to coordinate the efforts of all parties on how to solve the drug problems of patients.
At the press conference on epidemic prevention and control in Shanghai on April 9, Wu Jinglei, director of Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, said that with regard to the medical security of residents in the sealed area, the street, town or village committees, relying on grid and other forms, cooperate with local medical institutions to map out the health needs of residents, establish a dispensing demand account and implement classified management. For the medication of common and chronic diseases of residents, the community will arrange volunteers to connect with the local community health service center through agent dispensing.
The community health service center can also implement the long prescription policy for chronic disease patients with long-term medication, which can be dispensed for up to 3 months.
He also said that the family doctor team also took the initiative to connect with the contracted residents in the community, understand their needs and provide services. For specialized drugs that cannot be allocated by grass-roots medical institutions, such as psychiatric drugs, tumor treatment drugs and other specialized drugs, the community neighborhood and village committee plays the role of volunteers, registers and summarizes the relevant dispensing information of residents, establishes a agent dispensing team, and obtains drugs at the special window of the designated hospital. Residents can also use the Internet hospital for follow-up and dispensing.
At present, the increasing demand of patients for medication urgently needs the support of third-party distribution personnel. Wu Jinglei also mentioned that due to the recent factors such as the sealing and control of drug warehouses, the killing of express stations and the isolation of couriers, the drug delivery time has been extended to a certain extent compared with the past. We have stepped up the docking of logistics platforms and restored the transportation capacity as soon as possible to ensure the drug demand of residents.
Gu said that the reasons for the return of non epidemic service personnel to the district in Shanghai were sorted out, and the reasons for the return of non epidemic service personnel to the district in Shanghai were confirmed by the Municipal Commission, including the reasons for the return of non epidemic service personnel to the district in Shanghai. On April 8, 1096 people were newly employed, and 2000 people were transferred from outside the city to Shanghai. Shanghai is also coordinating urban logistics distribution resources, organizing postal express, SF express and key guarantee supply enterprises to carry out urban distribution.
It is worth mentioning that at present, including SF, deppon, Zhongtong, Yunda, Yuantong and other express enterprises are also responding to the government’s call and quickly launching mobilization orders to prepare for the restoration of logistics.
(Fang Xiaoqin in the text is a pseudonym)
