The New Landscape of Digital Healthcare in China
Picture yourself in a city in China. You wake up one day feeling a little ill and decide to see a doctor. Since you want the best care, you go to the nearest top-tier public hospital even if you know about community clinics. You wait for hours to see the doctor, only to have to wait again in line for the hospital’s pharmacy once you’ve finished your business there. As a result, a regular doctor’s appointment often lasts all day and is a very taxing event.
This is something that most Chinese have experienced in the last decade. However, in recent years the healthcare sector in all countries and governments has been dramatically changed by the revolutionary development of digital technology. In China, a country with a large population but unevenly distributed healthcare resources, the impact of digital innovations on the Chinese healthcare sector has been enormous. Digital healthcare presents opportunities as well as many challenges for the Chinese healthcare sector.
Opportunities:
Efficiency Improvements
From the patient’s perspective, digital health care may transcend time and location, address information imbalance between physicians and patients, streamline the medical process, lower medical costs, and improve the medical experience. To clarify, users can pre-register online. This saves time and eliminates hospital registration lines.
Digital healthcare allows doctors to digitise patient and health records, enhancing illness diagnosis, patient management, and medical productivity. Electronic records help carers recuperate faster, especially for patients who require them. Digital healthcare improves hospital management and service.
Electronic Health Record
An electronic health record (EHR) is a computerized representation of a patient’s medical chart. The EHR provides patients with real-time information on their health, especially critical for senior people.
Digital healthcare technology allows patients to send their medical information to different doctors via the interface or by obtaining their physical reports. EHRs can help doctors collaborate. EHRs can alert doctors if their prescriptions conflict.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine is the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to deliver health-related services and information.
The telemedicine consultation system breaks the limitations of time, space and geography. Over 1,600 internet hospitals established in China. It can effectively tackle the problem of uneven distribution of medical resources in China and bring the capabilities of medical experts to help patients in remote areas more rationally and effectively. Telemedicine can maximise the medical advantages of top-tier hospitals, extend medical services, balance the low level of medical care and lack of equipment resources in backward areas, and reduce medical errors and standing of significant importance for education and training.
Application of Big Data Technology in clinical decision making
Traditional medical diagnosis relies on information about the target patient and the doctor’s personal experience and knowledge base, which is highly limited. In contrast, big data technology enables clinicians to enter patient photos, medical records, test findings, treatment expenses, and other data into a big data system. Big data technology has been used effectively to achieve the “Dynamic Zero” policy. 85% of municipalities and 69% of counties nationwide established health platforms in 2022 by big data.
Doctors may learn about the disease mechanisms, causes, and therapy alternatives for patients with comparable symptoms using machine learning and mining analytic approaches.
Challenges:
Data Security and Privacy
The bottom lines of Internet hospital operations are information exchange and security risk avoidance and control. It is crucial to design a focused risk control strategy to support internet hospitals, emphasizing patient privacy protection and avoiding unlawful theft of treatment data, given the inherent risks associated with patient health and treatment data administration.
To safeguard patients’ privacy and the quality of care they get, it is imperative that all medical records created by online hospitals be kept secure and easily retrievable at all times.
The uneven development of China’s healthcare system
The uneven development of China’s healthcare system is a long-standing issue. The number of hospitals in China has grown steadily in recent years. In 2021, China already had 36,570 hospitals. Only 3,275 hospitals are then classified as Class Ⅲ hospitals, which are far more popular than non-tertiary hospitals. Rural and small-town residents have limited access to quality healthcare, as most top-tier hospitals are concentrated in large cities and developed areas.
The unequal distribution also encourages people to seek access to the best degree of health care. They will continue to favour tertiary hospitals until the telemedicine system is adequately developed or resources are divided fairly to minimise their scepticism of non-tertiary hospitals.
Inconsistent Standards for System
In recent years, China’s medical institutions have continued to promote the advancement of clinical medical information systems, such as electronic medical records. However, in the concrete implementation process, the relevant system standards are not uniform, and interfaces vary due to local procurement and construction. In light of this, attaining nationwide interoperability and real-time sharing of electronic health and medical records systems is challenging. It also causes difficulties in promoting digital healthcare and implementing a wide range of coverage systems.
Ease of use of the system for patients
Digital healthcare is accessible to most internet users. But, in-person meetings are easier for senior people, those with disabilities, and those who don’t have cell phones or smart devices. Internet novices may struggle to use the system to improve their self-care. It’s important not to abandon offline activities just because the online system is popular and effective, but to ensure that the technology can be used widely while safeguarding minority groups. The system’s design should also be streamlined.
Further Development Outlook
Healthcare organisations may cooperate with technology vendors to establish online health systems that satisfy the requirements and target issues of most people and prioritize continual review and improvement of their digital health projects. Local communities might train older people to use online platforms.
