Internet diagnosis and treatment services flourish amid COVID-19 pandemic
By Li
Hongmei, People’s Daily
The
sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has thrown those planning for
subsequent visits to hospitals in a dilemma, as they might face the exposure to
the virus when refilling their prescriptions.
Fortunately,
online medical care services are giving them a new and safe solution.
Through
online hospitals and medical service platforms, patients are now able to
consult doctors, do follow-up checks, have the medicine delivered, and even
settle medical insurance on the internet.
A
64-year-old citizen surnamed Song in East China’s Jiangxi Province, who suffers
from Parkinson’s disease, has benefited from such an online real-time clinic
under the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital
affiliated with the School of Medicine, Zhejiang University. After consulting
the doctors online, she soon received a solution on follow-up checks and drug
delivery, and avoided the risk of contracting the novel coronavirus at the
hospital.
Due to the pneumonia outbreak, the amount of online
diagnosis and treatment at hospitals affiliated to or supervised by the
National Health Commission (NHC) saw a 17-fold year-on-year increase, according to data from the Department of
Planning and Information at the NHC. The number is over 20 times higher for
some third-party online medical service
platforms.
According to Cai Xiujun, president of the Sir Run
Run Shaw Hospital, the hospital has launched consultancy hotlines,
livestreaming, free consultations, AI-assisted self-examination system and
psychological hotlines amid the pandemic. More than 17 million people have
registered on the self-examination system, he added.
After the hospital started offering online medical
insurance settlement service since Feb. 15, it became the first hospital in
China to offer online follow-up examination for chronic patients, online drug
delivery and automatic settlement of medical insurance.
So far, the hospital has received a total of more
than 168,000 pieces of consultations, given online health consultations to over
238,000 people and provided prescription refilling and medicine delivery
services for 12,120 chronic patients.
Internet technology has been seeing an increasingly
wider application in the medical sector. With the help of 5G technology, the
China-Japan Friendship Hospital (National Telemedicine and Connected Health
Center) has carried out remote consultations for 85 pneumonia patients in
Central China’s Hubei Province, and five online patient rounds, as well as
given 15 livestreaming lectures on COVID-19 prevention and control.
A smart system was developed by AI experts under the
organization of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, by which medical
workers admitted and treated 27,600 COVID-19 patients at 537 quarantine sites
in Hubei through telemedicine.
Besides, the internet was also used to enhance
psychological assistance during the epidemic as the Beijing University of
Chinese Medicine and the Peking University Sixth Hospital launched online
psychological consulting services.
With the efforts of medical workers, hospitals, and
the society, both the amount and quality of online medical services have
secured continuous growth.
A large number of doctors are joining online
consulting services, and online hospitals are emerging in Shanghai, Tianjin,
Chongqing, Hunan, Hubei and Gansu. Additionally, internet companies such as
Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, WeDoctor and haodf.com are also providing technical
and platform supports for free.
A sound
online medical ecology led by the government, participated by various parties
and characterized by joint innovation, contribution and shared benefits is
taking shape, which will facilitate the rapid development of the new business,
said Liu Wenxian, deputy director of the Department of Planning and Information
at the NHC.
China
will make overall plans to encourage the integration of online and offline
medical services, strengthen supervision, and standardize services to better
promote the healthy growth of Internet-driven medical care business, Liu added.
As people gradually become used to seeking online
medical services, the industry will diversify its content, and stimulate the
development of relevant industrial groups, thus driving the overall development
of the healthcare services, said Lu Qingjun, director of the China-Japan
Friendship Hospital (National Telemedicine and Connected Health Center).
Photo taken on May 8 shows Mao Liping (left), chief
physician at the Sixth People’s Hospital of Nantong, inquires about a patient’s
physical conditions via a video link. Photo by Xu Congjun/People’s Daily Online
Internet diagnosis and treatment services flourish amid COVID-19 pandemic
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