A pilot program to promote and implement new standards for online primary care will soon begin in China. The program was announced at a meeting with general practitioners led by the Chinese Medical Association and will be developed in cooperation with major hospitals and the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations.
No information was disclosed about the content of the standards during the presentation, but they are said to be based on standards developed by Chinese health insurer Ping An for its online family doctor service, called Ping An Family Doctor.
AI-driven virtual family doctor service
This is an AI-driven service, developed the health insurer's health tech unit. The service was launched in 2022 and now has 13 million registered users. Patients can use the service to have a virtual consultation with a family doctor certified by the World Organization of Family Doctors. The service also simplifies the process of referrals, scheduling hospital appointments, nursing care and post-discharge follow-ups.
The Ping An Family Doctor platform also provides access to patients' EHR, for example, for uploading medical reports. AI-driven personalized health plans can also be generated. Furthermore, integration with smart medical devices is possible and the platform can generate near real-time alerts for urgent health problems.
National standards for providing online GP services will be published on the platform of the Standardization Administration of China (an agency under the State Administration for Market Regulation) by the end of this year, Ping An shared in a press release.
Healthcare transition in China
The online GP service and platform were introduced as part of the healthcare transition in China. To that end, primary care centers were established in 2019. In 2021, this became the basis for the national strategy to build a new primary care system. The Chinese government wants to make high-quality primary care more accessible to the population and relieve the burden on hospitals. Services previously available only to large hospitals.
There are three primary care packages in China: a free basic public health care package, a basic package with options for personalization and an integrated package for medical treatment and nursing care.
One of the bigger challenges to “marketing” the new primary care system has to do with the reluctance of many Chinese citizens to opt for an online GP service. Therefore, following a survey, opportunities to incentivize people by, for example, increasing reimbursements from health insurance companies or reducing healthcare costs for citizens through discounts have been explored.
Health insurers are also an important party, and enabler, in the Netherlands when it comes to care transition. Early this year, for example, health insurer ONVZ, together with Arene, launched the online digital GP practice to offer digital GP care for 20,000 policyholders.
