Chinese healthcare services firm Zhongchao, through its subsidiary Shanghai Zhongxin Medical Technology, has established Zhongxin Ningxia, its new business that will set up an internet hospital for inpatient management in China.

WHY IT MATTERS

Zhongchao said in a press statement that the upcoming Zhongxin Internet Hospital will offer an all-in-one patient management service, including diagnosis, treatment solutions, treatment engagement management and living improvement.

Through sharing data with both in and outpatients, the company envisions the internet hospital to provide "more efficient" patient management service and attract business opportunities, such as health insurance, medicine sales and patient recruitment.

This announcement came in after a month since Zhongchao launched its patient management service for patients with tumours and rare diseases, which will also be offered in its forthcoming hospital. Based on a previous statement, the service is backed by its MDMOOC online platform that provides information, education and training to healthcare professionals and Sunshine Health Forums platform that delivers healthcare knowledge to the public.

THE LARGER TREND

The rapid rise of internet hospitals in China was attributed to policies enforced by the National Health Commission in April last year that vigorously promoted its development. As of July 2020, there are approximately 711 internet hospitals on the mainland, according to research published in January in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Over half of those digital institutions or 421 were set up in the past two years, while a third was established in 2020 as an emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, Ping An Good Doctor launched its Private Doctor service under an internet hospital model.

This year in April, BlueCity received a license to run China's first men health-focused internet hospital through He Health. Last week, He Health announced that it will be introducing more online care services for the rest of the year.

ON THE RECORD

"Zhongchao's subsidiary Shanghai Zhongxin Medical Technology has accumulated vast experience in outpatient management services. With the implementation of the inpatient management service provided by Zhongxin Internet Hospital, we believe our all-in-one service would greatly improve our patients' treatment experience," Zhongchao Chairman and CEO Weiguang Yang said.

"We believe that the recent favourable trends could further boost the development of our Zhongxin Internet Hospital's business inpatient management service," the company official added.