The latest Internet diagnosis and treatment regulatory policy "boots landed", putting a "tight hoop" on the barbaric growth industry, and the digital medical track that continues to focus on serious medical services ushered in a major positive.
On October 27, the National Health Commission issued the Detailed Rules for the Supervision of Internet Diagnosis and Treatment (Draft for Comments) (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinion Draft"), which listed detailed provisions on the supervision of medical institutions, personnel supervision, business supervision, quality and safety supervision, and regulatory responsibilities, which aroused great concern in the industry.
In the past few years, under the encouragement of frequent favorable national policies, Internet medical care has flourished, and various new formats have blossomed - forming a digital medical track that focuses on providing serious medical services represented by weDoctor and good doctors, a pharmaceutical e-commerce track that provides online health care products, OTC and prescription drug sales, and AI consultation and light consultation that provide simple health consulting services. While jointly promoting the digital transformation of medical care, they are also exploring standardized standards for the development of the industry.
Obviously, the purpose of the "Opinion Draft" is to clearly determine the original vague and confusing boundaries of Internet medical treatment, completely break the previous ambiguous situation of "medicine, medicine and technology", the so-called "medicine to medicine, medicine to medicine, technology to technology", so that Internet medical treatment returns to the essence of "serious medical treatment". Taking this as the fulcrum, from a deep level, this is undoubtedly of great significance for further promoting the long-term sustainable development of China's Internet medical care, and even establishing a "health-centered" health maintenance system with digitalization.
Medicine to medicine, medicine to medicine, technology to technology
China's Internet medical development has been at the forefront of the world, and the industrial investment scale of China's digital health industry has become the second largest country after the United States, which is closely related to the consistent policy encouragement and support in China.
As early as October 2016, the "Healthy China 2030" Planning Outline clearly proposed to "develop Internet-based health services". In April 2018, the "Opinions on Promoting the Development of "Internet + Medical Health"" called for accelerating the development of "Internet + medical health", so that patients can run less errands and be more convenient, so that more people can share high-quality medical services. Since then, a series of documents have been intensively released to regulate Internet medical care in more detail, which has greatly promoted the rapid development of Internet medical treatment.
The Draft Opinions inherit the direction of the state's encouragement of Internet medical treatment. At the same time, a new signal has been released through strengthening supervision - Internet diagnosis and treatment should be "homogeneous" with the diagnosis and treatment services provided by physical institutions to the greatest extent, so that Internet diagnosis and treatment can return to the positioning of "providing serious medical services", which is mainly reflected in three aspects:
First of all, block the online "medicine for medicine" online. The "Draft Opinions" proposes that "the occurrence of problems such as unified parties and supplementary prescriptions" is prohibited, "the personal income of medical and health personnel must not be linked to the income of drugs and medical examinations", the Internet diagnosis and treatment and drug sales behavior are "isolated", the Internet diagnosis and treatment platform is prevented from "alienating" the diagnosis and treatment behavior into a prescription drug marketing tool, and the "Internet drug sales" atmosphere is stopped, so that "medicine" is attributed to "medicine".
Second, prevent the misuse of "AI technology". The Draft Opinions make it clear that "physicians need to undergo real-name authentication before receiving treatment to ensure that they are admitted by themselves." Other personnel, artificial intelligence software, etc. must not fraudulently use or substitute for physicians to receive treatment. This has made a normative restriction on the application of AI technology in Internet medical treatment, limiting AI to be used for physician assistance such as guidance and auxiliary diagnosis, rather than replacing manual services, so that "technology" belongs to "technology".
In addition, put an end to "fish-eyed beads". The Draft Opinions put forward higher requirements for the digital ability of Internet diagnosis and treatment service entities, such as "medical institutions' electronic prescriptions, prescription audit records, and prescription review records should be traceable, and open data interfaces to provincial regulatory platforms", "medical institutions should have special departments to manage the medical quality, medical safety, pharmaceutical services, information technology, etc. of Internet diagnosis and treatment, and establish a corresponding management system", which undoubtedly raises the industry entry threshold as a whole. Whether there is the corresponding Internet medical infrastructure, and related technical capabilities and operation management experience will become an important prerequisite for compliant operation.
The digital medical track focusing on serious medical services has ushered in a positive situation
According to the data released by the National Health Commission, since WeDoctor created the country's first Internet hospital in 2015 - Wuzhen Internet Hospital to open the new format of "Internet + medical health" to June 2021, the number of Internet hospitals in China has exceeded 1600, and about 500 new ones have been added in the first half of 2021 alone.
In the process of the vigorous development of the Internet medical industry, each platform has explored different Internet medical formats based on the underlying business logic and different business models, including a digital medical platform focusing on "serious medical treatment", a pharmaceutical e-commerce platform based on online drug retail, and an online consultation platform focusing on light consultation.
Under such an ecology, coupled with the short-term explosive growth of the epidemic-catalyzed industry, many platforms that lack the necessary qualifications have entered the market, causing controversy over Internet medical treatment, such as "Internet medical care relies on selling drugs" and "Internet medical treatment is light consultation" and other prejudices emerge in an endless stream. Before the "Opinion Draft" was issued, Jiao Yahui, director of the Medical Administration Bureau of the National Health Commission, once commented that Internet medical care is a double-edged sword, and the people enjoy convenience while also containing some risks, one is qualification, the other is quality, and qualification plus quality is equal to safety.
The timely promulgation of the "Draft Opinions" obviously takes into account the current situation of irregularities, vague positioning, fragmentation and even "edge balls" in the current Internet medical treatment, and supervises Internet medical care according to the standards of serious medical behavior, ensuring service security, raising the industry threshold, ensuring service quality, and returning to the essence of medical services, which obviously brings "spring" to the major platforms of the digital medical track.
Of course, to a large extent, this is also based on the consensus reached in industry practice. On the digital medical track, some pioneers have continuously broadened the value dimension of Internet medical care by providing professional and serious digital medical services for the public, and have also found a value foothold for them.
Taking WeDoctor, the largest digital medical service platform in China, as an example, in the past few years, it has invested huge resources in "laying pipes" and building a complete set of digital medical infrastructure "networks". Through the establishment of a sound operation, management, service, security technology and other systems, in-depth interconnection with medical institutions in the region, integration of high-quality medical service capabilities, and gradually open up medical insurance payments, and began to empower commercial health insurance. Based on this decade of accumulation, we can provide users with professional, full-process medical services and health maintenance services.
Starting from Wuzhen, as of now, WeDoctor has landed 31 Internet hospitals across the country, of which 18 have opened up medical insurance payments; in addition, it has deeply connected more than 7,800 hospitals across the country, including more than 95% of the country's top three hospitals, with more than 280,000 registered doctors and more than 240 million registered users. WeDoctor Internet Hospital is also the earliest Internet hospital platform in China to open up the medical insurance payment system, and it is also the first platform in China to open a municipal digital chronic disease management service covered by medical insurance, and has been rapidly copied and landed in many cities, providing residents with online follow-up consultation, chronic disease management, drug delivery to home, medical insurance online payment and other services.
From the innovative practice of WeDoctor, it can be seen that from the government, to the industry, to the public, the demand for and recognition of digital service platforms engaged in serious medical treatment.
"Internet medical" to "Internet medical association" to upgrade to empower the new medical reform
The previously issued policies and the positioning of Internet medical care in the Draft Opinions have more and more clearly outlined the top-level design of the state for medical reform and the guidance direction for the industry. Especially at present, with the advent of the aging era, people's health needs are increasing, and the role that Internet medical care can play in promoting the orderly flow of medical resources has become more prominent.
A few days ago, the State Council Medical Reform Leading Group issued the "Implementation Opinions on Deeply Promoting the Experience of Sanming City, Fujian Province, and Deepening the Reform of the Medical and Health System", which mentioned the "medical federation" 16 times, and the construction of the medical federation has become the main axis of China's medical reform. Therefore, how to use digital means to leverage the reform of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment is an opportunity for Internet medical treatment to "turn around" and truly exert great value.
As a pioneer of digital medical reform, WeDoctor has explored a practical path: with the Internet hospital as the hub, the establishment of an Internet medical consortium, the opening up of medical insurance, commercial insurance and supply chain systems, the construction of a "pay-as-effective" regional closed-loop medical system, to share the pressure for large hospitals, to enhance the capacity of grass-roots hospitals, to improve the supply chain and efficiency, and to improve the efficiency of medical insurance and commercial insurance payments, and finally to establish a Chinese-style health care organization.
For example, under the guidance of the Tianjin Municipal Health Commission, the Tianjin Grassroots Digital Health Community, a close-knit Internet medical consortium led by Tianjin WeDoctor Internet Hospital and formed in collaboration with 267 grass-roots medical and health institutions, is very representative. What is of breakthrough significance is that it takes the management of chronic diseases as the starting point, explores the implementation of payment methods such as "overall package payment" and "packaged payment by disease type and head" of medical insurance, implements a new health responsibility system, promotes the medical system from "price difference" to "efficiency difference", and stimulates the efficiency of the entire medical service system.
At the 2021 National Deepening Medical Reform Experience Promotion Conference, Tianjin Grassroots Health Community was selected as one of the "Top Ten New Measures to Promote Medical Reform and Serve the Health of the People". Zhan Jifu, the "chief helmsman" of Sanming Medical Reform, once commented that the "health responsibility system" built by the Tianjin Grassroots Digital Health Community is highly consistent with the goals of Sanming Medical Reform 3.0, and the relevant practical experience has a good demonstration effect, and the results are worthy of attention. ”
The promulgation of the "Draft Opinions" has promoted the return of Internet medical care to the essence of "serious medical treatment", and also opened up the imagination space for digital empowerment of new medical reform: through digitally driving the "three medical linkage", truly improving the accessibility, economy, effectiveness and transparency of medical services, and achieving the goal of "sharing pressure for large hospitals, improving the capacity of grass-roots hospitals, improving efficiency for payment, and improving health index for the people".
Editor-in-charge: Guo Jing
Image: From the web
Text review: Guo Jing