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"There are no cowhides that cannot be blown up, only liars without a bottom line."
In February this year, "Burn Superman Po", who is certified as a popular health and medical blogger on Weibo, released the above blog post, accompanied by 13 screenshots of doctors' popular science videos on a short video platform. In the screenshot, copywriting similar to "no bad ××, only bad doctors" appears highly similar in the videos of multiple doctors.
A few days later, an institutional director of a doctor's IP incubation also released a similar complaint, pointing to the series of popular science videos of "patients praise the peerless son", "making the science popularization of doctors in third-class hospitals into a small advertisement on the side of the road".
In early March, Douyin Medical dealt with 81 illegal accounts in one fell swoop, and implemented joint measures such as violation warnings against relevant MCN institutions, pointing to fabricating or disseminating unverified medical information, fabricating and disseminating low-quality homogeneous content in batches, carrying out false propaganda, character building, and gaining traffic.
The practice of medicine by large manufacturers, the rise of short video and short content platforms, and the blessing of traffic have made the track of medical and health a place where soldiers must compete. In addition to "asset-heavy" investment, the creation of doctor's IP has gradually become an intersection point where multiple parties can find consensus on interests, from "demand" to "manufacturing demand", connecting doctors, medical institutions, platforms and consumers, and some of the consumer's purchase behaviors are likely to have been secretly "dragged".
When doctors encounter short videos, active or passive
On the short video platform, from the release of the first video in May 2021 to now, Wu Lan, director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Xing'an Meng Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, a tertiary maternal and child health care hospital in Inner Mongolia, has gained 78,000 followers.
The content of nearly 300 videos involves not only hot interpretations such as HPV virus transmission routes, but also popular science of some common diseases, and the most important content focuses on vascular intervention treatment of uterine fibroids and adenomyosis.
Like Wulan, with his professional insights, doctors from different fields have become popular short videos, and doctors' IPs have not only been tracked by "in need", but also gradually known to the public.
Short videos can provide a feasible path for Wulan to spread health knowledge more widely and solve patients' problems, but some people embrace new media, possibly out of "helplessness".
Unlike Wulan, Li Hong (pseudonym) works in the rehabilitation department of a tertiary hospital, and his "IP" operation is locked in the circle of friends.
After working, he has hardly posted a circle of friends, and in 2021 began to frequently update the popular science content produced by the department. Mr. Li said his hospital was relatively encouraging for doctors to open personal accounts.
It is understood that Li Hong holds a rehabilitation technician certificate, not a traditional medical practitioner certificate. When considering doing a new media account in 2021, because they could not pass the certification audit of the short video platform, their department focused on the circle of friends.
"There is a certain celebrity effect between doctors and patients, if the doctor's medical skills are good enough and there are enough patients, it will become the reputation of the doctor, and it can also bring more patients to the hospital, so the hospital also hopes that more people will recognize this doctor." Li Hong said.
Whether it is an individual doctor or a hospital, the probability of having an "external propaganda" appeal is increasing. Xue Chen (pseudonym), who helps doctors in a large third-class hospital in Beijing run the account of a short video platform, also admits that the hospital still encourages doctors to make new media accounts. However, hospitals also have hospital considerations, some large public hospitals may be relatively cautious, and other hospitals are likely to set up their own relevant streaming media departments, all for word-of-mouth, expand influence and other reasons.
"Everyone wants to be a famous doctor, and this is also linked to the performance of the department." Xie Miaomiao (pseudonym), who works in a local hospital, believes that this situation is normal, "Now whether it is a third-class hospital or a small hospital, there is a certain pressure to generate income." ”
Li Hong mentioned that at present, many contract employees in the hospital rely on the hospital's own operation for the payment of salaries. Xie Miaomiao also mentioned that the establishment of hospitals is very small, there may be only one establishment in a department, but there are dozens of doctors.
In an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, Zhao Heng, a partner of Latitude Health, a medical strategy consulting company, said that the IP of doctors is mainly divided into three categories, namely famous doctors, general doctors and doctors represented by medical beauty who prefer consumer medicine, most of which are aimed at expanding publicity, improving popularity, and obtaining more patients, which can be summarized as "diversion".
This situation is most obvious in the field of medical beauty, many big V will edit the exchange scene during the face-to-face consultation into a short video, so as to shape a distinct character, and this character and aesthetic tendency will also be subtly implanted in the consumer's concept, which has attracted many fans.
Consumer Xiao Liu followed a plastic surgeon in a third-class hospital in Beijing on the short video platform, but after deciding to see the doctor, he faced the problem of not being able to hang up.
The assistant said that the doctor's face-to-face consultation in a third-class hospital has been scheduled for August or September, but in a medical beauty clinic in Beijing, the doctor's second practice point, the special needs number can be hung up after five days. Xiao Liu found that the doctor's registration fee was 300 yuan, which was the same as the doctor's registration fee in a third-class hospital. However, in comparison, many doctors' face-to-face registration fee is only 60 yuan, and the cost of surgery by this doctor is also higher than that of peers.
Deng Zhidong, general manager of Hainan Boao Medical Technology Co., Ltd., analyzed that the surge in doctors' IP has multiple reasons such as market demand, doctors' IP willingness to improve, MCN and capital promotion, and media technology development, the most important factor is the strong demand of the market, more and more people need efficient online medical consultation and help, and the epidemic has objectively promoted the development of doctors' IP.
MCN, angel or devil
"Health science popularization is a very social work, which cannot only rely on the health department, but also requires the cooperation of multiple departments, and the extensive participation of all sectors of society." In June last year, the relevant person in charge of the Publicity Department of the National Health Commission said so.
At that time, the National Health Commission and other nine departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Establishing and Improving the Mechanism for the Dissemination and Dissemination of All-media Health Science Popularization Knowledge", requiring the establishment and improvement of the all-media health science knowledge release and dissemination mechanism, increasing the high-quality supply of health science knowledge in the whole society, and promoting the high-quality development of health science popularization services.
But for doctors who are good at holding scalpels, the operation of new media is not a necessary skill they need to master, and the task of health science popularization also leaves enough room for professional operation institutions to play.
At the beginning, in order to answer the patient's doubts, Ulan could only guarantee the frequency of live broadcasts twice a week, mostly after surgery or medical treatment.
With the increase of fans, Ulan received more and more private messages, and many questions about the disease could not be answered in time. By chance, Wulan and Chen Huisheng reached a cooperation.
Chen Huisheng is the owner of a vertical MCN in the medical track, and before working with doctors, Chen Huisheng usually has a deep understanding of various situations of doctors, including not only professional skills, but also personal ideals, professional views, etc. In Chen Huisheng's view, this is a stricter check, which can also facilitate him to better help doctors create more suitable IP.
Ulan was accompanied by a professional assistant to help her shoot and edit videos, and sometimes help her with some private messages. In Chen Huisheng's concept, letting professional people do professional science knowledge is of very positive significance to the whole society, and at the same time, it can effectively avoid the unreasonable overdraft of medical resources and leave the expert number to those who really need it. While expanding their influence, doctors can also generate income through knowledge payment and cooperation with other medical institutions.
Deng Zhidong also mentioned that MCN institutions have strong financial strength, can provide strong technical support, can provide systematic brand promotion, content creation, fan operation and other services for doctor IP, continue to improve the popularity and influence of doctor IP, and continuously expand and expand market share.
Different from other fields widely involved in MCN, in order to obtain traffic, copying the entertainment method of obtaining traffic has become "too late" to copy the doctor's IP operation.
According to Douyin Medical's penalty announcement, the punished accounts mainly focus on four types of problems, including fabricating or disseminating unverified medical information, using false stories and extreme cases to publish false content that may cause public panic and disrupt social order, and fabricating and disseminating low-quality homogeneous content in batches to carry out false publicity, character building, traffic acquisition, etc.
On March 14, Kuaishou Health also issued a public notice on the handling of illegal accounts, mentioning that after a recent review by the platform, it was found that some medical creators had conducted medical guidance and diversion through live broadcasts, and the live broadcast was a live broadcast by non-medical creators themselves, and the live broadcast content was mostly broadcast and recorded, which affected the healthy and harmonious community ecological environment, and disposed of a total of 77 accounts.
When MCN institutions pursue traffic and monetization too much, the creation of doctors' IP will become tasteless.
In the process of dealing with doctors, Chen Huisheng found that doctors often cannot effectively distinguish which types of institutions can really help them run a good account, which has become an important reason for the proliferation of homogeneous content.
Some institutions may, for purely commercial purposes, seize the characteristics of doctors' ignorance of new media, and produce a large number of eye-catching content in order to earn traffic and make money.
"To give a simple example, if some experts enter the platform and open an account, some institutions will create a video of 'such and such a patient has been saved'." Chen Huisheng asked rhetorically, is this a help doctor or a pit doctor?
In 2018, Xie Miaomiao's role was still a doctor's agent, her job was to provide services such as filming, and help doctors make up accounts, "At that time, the manuscripts were all written by us, and doctors only needed to go there and record them."
In the medical field, you can't talk about expression, and short video platforms are well aware of this situation. In the process of operation, Xue Chen also had direct contact with the operation team of Douyin.
According to Xue Chen, hospitals operated offline by Douyin will also find Internet celebrity doctors to go there. But in actual operations, Douyin found that some doctors may speak well, but the actual level of technology is not up to the standard they say.
Xue Chen said that at present, all the content of Douyin Health is vertically managed by Xiaohe Health, setting up a white list, focusing on training 1-2 doctors for each single disease in each department, so that they can develop benignly, rather than pushing doctors' IP on a large scale and indiscriminately.
"Although the standards for certification are now slightly relaxed, many of the liberalization is also invitation-based, and a certain number must be controlled." Xue Chen mentioned that Douyin found that some doctors only come to obtain basic traffic, resulting in the emergence of homogeneous content, so they tend to have more excellent doctors, doctors with better certification, or doctors with certain abilities on other platforms, which is why each department focuses on pushing 1-2 doctors per disease.
In terms of content, the control mechanism is also very strict, it is reported that behind Douyin medical content, there is a review team of up to 3,000 people. "They also realize that they are responsible for the patient when directing the flow of doctors, after all, if there is a problem and spread of content in the medical field, such as ideas, etc., the consequences are complex and cannot be corrected in the short term." Xue Chen said.
The need to be "made" versus the consumption to be "dominated"
"The reason for homogenization is for traffic, it's as simple as that." In an exchange with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, the director of a medical MCN institution said so, and he also admitted that such videos are the content of the team behind it.
When new media platforms, MCN institutions and traffic collide, live streaming may become the first monetization channel naturally, and the medical field is no exception.
Some media have reported that "Internet celebrity doctors" have increased outpatient volume by creating their own IP, and monetized in the form of live streaming, live rewarding, window shopping, and online consultation.
Last year, the monetization channel of live streaming goods was blocked. In June 2022, the National Health Commission and other nine departments issued the "2022 Work Points for Correcting Unhealthy Trends in the Field of Pharmaceutical Purchase and Sales and Medical Services", which clearly mentioned the serious investigation and punishment of medical institution staff using their positions and identities to bring goods live.
Li Hong's hospital also banned doctors from live streaming goods, and he sent reporters "nine prohibitions" on the construction of medical and health practices, and Article 5 mentioned that it was not allowed to participate in sales activities and publish medical advertisements in violation of regulations.
Image source: Courtesy of interviewee
At present, the window and the little yellow car function of Douyin medical authentication accounts have been closed. Xue Chen said that the ban has been going on for at least half a year, and they have also applied for it, and at that time they paid a deposit of 500 yuan, and the fee has been refunded last year.
Sun Zhifeng, a partner and lawyer at Beijing Zhuowei Law Firm, said that the sale of drugs or devices by doctors through live streaming is an act of selling drugs or devices on online platforms. The sale of drugs, in accordance with the Drug Administration Law and the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Drug Sales, shall be a drug marketing authorization holder or pharmaceutical trading enterprise with the ability to ensure the safety of online sales of drugs, shall obtain the qualification of drug retail sales, and the drugs sold shall not be included in the Prohibited List of Online Sales of Drugs.
The sale of drugs and devices shall also be limited to the holder of the medical device marketing authorization (i.e. the medical device registrant or recordation holder, hereinafter referred to as the "holder") and the medical device production and trading enterprise in accordance with the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Sales of Medical Devices, and obtain a medical device business license or handle the filing.
However, Sun Zhifeng bluntly said that doctors generally cannot obtain the above qualifications in their personal capacity. In addition, in view of the certain advertising nature of live streaming goods, it should also comply with the relevant provisions of the Advertising Law. The Measures for the Administration of Medical Advertisements stipulate that medical advertisements must not use the names and images of patients, health technicians, medical education and scientific research institutions and personnel, as well as other associations and organizations.
In other words, if a doctor uses his professional image or reputation as a medical institution to guide consumers to purchase his recommended goods or medical services, he is suspected of violating the aforementioned regulations.
But that doesn't mean traffic loses its monetization role. Xie Miaomiao said that the doctor's industry is like a mountain, if people find that obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, respiratory and other departments that cannot be beaten are all coming to popularize the same thing, then it is likely that a pharmaceutical company wants to do promotion, MCN institutions may send the same manuscript to doctors, and the final result is similar words that more than a dozen or twenty doctors are saying.
The reporter searched for a new crown specific drug as a keyword, and found that the doctors who had carried out the science popularization of the drug covered emergency department, cardiology, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, otolaryngology, reproductive medicine, etc., and most of the content began with the new crown special drug, followed by the basic information and usage of the popular science drug, and finally emphasized that there was no specific drug for viral infection.
The company that Xie Miaomiao worked for as a doctor's agent, a media company registered by medical representatives, in addition to providing packaging services, there is also a cooperative model in which MCN institutions charge a certain price for doctors to implant specific products into videos.
According to Xie Miaomiao's recollection, in 2018, the price of such a video could reach 2,000 yuan, and the cost of inviting experts to give a lecture was only more than 1,000 yuan.
"Doctors do not directly recommend a certain brand of products, it is likely that they will only use a certain brand's products as display samples in the process of popular science, even if this will make people form a certain impression, causing consumers to subtly choose the products demonstrated in the video to buy." Xie Miaomiao said.
The reporter searched for oximeters as keywords on the short video and found that December last year was the peak of this instrument science popularization. Although some orthopedic doctors are emphasizing at the beginning not to follow the trend to rush to buy oximeters, do not be "brought to the rhythm", but the final foothold is still emphasizing that the elderly with underlying diseases at home recommend buying.
At the same time, there are also many doctors who popularize the corresponding usage, involving anesthesiology, cardiac surgery, pediatrics, brain medicine, etc. Many doctors have enlarged the detailed picture of the product during the display process, but there are also doctors who have specially coded the product brand in the process of showing details such as how to read popular science.
Zhao Heng mentioned that a major role in addition to the auxiliary operation of MCN institutions is to build a bridge between pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers and doctors, and put specific content into the specific form, which may be in the form of doctors carrying out science popularization.
"Of course, the premise of everything is to be compliant, doctors cannot directly recommend you a certain drug, more from a professional point of view, science popularization of a certain disease should be what kind of treatment process, so as to carry out some soft implantation." Zhao Heng said.
Sun Zhifeng said that if doctors do not take advantage of their position, identity or the image of a medical institution, they can bring goods live-streamed without violating the law and the relevant systems of medical institutions, but they should also comply with the "E-commerce Law", "Measures for the Administration of Online Live Streaming Marketing" and "Provisions on the Administration of Internet Live Streaming Services", and strictly review the relevant licenses, certificates of conformity and other qualifications of goods and merchants.
Big factories "practice medicine" and do not retreat in the face of difficulties
Doctor IP building has become an industry, in addition to patients, doctors, MCN institutions, there is also a role that cannot be ignored - platform. And when the clean-up announcement is frequently made public, a contradictory phenomenon has also surfaced, while in the layout, on the other hand, in the governance, the Internet giant's medical dream road, has always stopped.
Taking Douyin as an example, on February 1 this year, Douyin "health field creator" personal certification application was opened, and the application conditions mentioned that the creator's identity was not a "working doctor". In November last year, the professional certification of Douyin medical and health creators was opened to public tertiary hospitals. In the same month, Douyin Healthcare released a new author incentive plan, which can divide tens of millions of traffic for participating in submissions.
According to Xue Chen, the short video platform is very strict for the certification of doctors, and certification materials such as the certificate of in-service issued by the hospital, the doctor's practice certificate, the screenshot of the in-service doctor of the Health Commission, and the badge need to be submitted.
"Originally, only the deputy chief physician of a third-class hospital or above could be certified, but later Douyin found that some doctors are actually very capable, so the certification is gradually released, and now the attending physician of a first-class hospital can apply, in addition, doctors from some associations can also apply for certification." Xue Chen said.
According to public reports, ByteDance's medical landscape has involved online medical science popularization, digital consultation, consultation appointments, offline medical clinics, etc. Xiaohe Health App once undertook the hope of ByteDance to develop offline medical treatment, but not long ago there was news that it was about to be suspended. In response, ByteDance responded that the Xiaohe Health App has not been shut down and is still in operation. The Xiaohe team was also not merged into Douyin, but was responsible for the ecological operation of Douyin's medical pendants.
From high-profile admission to the comfort zone of returning content after a try, it is the dilemma of Byte's layout of Internet medical care, and it is also the epitome of the medical road of large factories. It is understood that as early as 2019, Kuaishou jointly released the "Healthy China, Fast Health" plan with the Health Communication Working Committee of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and 500 public hospitals settled in Kuaishou.
During the epidemic, Kuaishou also opened an "online consultation" portal to provide users with free expert consultation services. Since then, this function has been integrated into Kuaishou Health, which is also an important window for Kuaishou online medical treatment.
Regarding the normalization of the platform's medical content and the follow-up layout plan, the Beijing Business Daily reporter contacted Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu, but did not receive a reply as of press time.
Feng Huakui, founder of naughty e-commerce, believes that compared with simple drug trading, if the short video platform can open up the relationship between medical information, medical institutions and doctors, it will also be of considerable help to the pharmaceutical industry in the future.
In Feng Huakui's view, the feature of live broadcast is that it can establish a one-on-one environment, which can solve the needs of patients more scientifically and targeted. From this point of view, the Internet transforms the medical industry and nuggets the medical industry through live broadcasts, short videos and other methods, which is much better than the traditional e-commerce model.
Medical treatment is a rigid market, the proportion of conversion between users' browsing and consumption willingness can not be underestimated, in addition to the separate performance of medical products, the different ways of "practicing medicine" of large manufacturers are worth considering.
Different from vertical mining in the content field, Ali Health, JD Health, etc. can be regarded as typical Internet medical e-commerce models. Taking JD Health as an example, public information shows that in 2019, JD Health was spun off from JD Group and began to operate independently; In the first year of listing in 2020, JD Health achieved profitability; But in 2021, the company began to lose money; In 2022, JD.com's health performance began to pick up.
But the ultimate goal of the Internet giants is actually the big health industry. Feng Huakui believes that whether it is health care or disease, it will be included, which will extend to the core of hospital services step by step, and gradually form a set of closed loops of the health industry.
Reporter丨Yang Yuehan
Editor丨Wang Naixin
Photo丨Beijing Business Daily, Sina Weibo screenshot, photo provided by interviewee, OneImage, Visual China