The “Internet Hospital” in China

What if patients could receive healthcare services via the Internet?

This concept has been actualized in the Guangdong province of China with the innovation of an “Internet Hospital.” The “hospital” provides outpatient service delivery. Patients only need to travel short distances from their homes to local medical consultation facilities. At the facility, the patient is able to meet with a doctor from a high-level hospital that is more central to the city. The consultation occurs with a webcam and instant messaging.

The doctors will ask questions of the patient, who may also send or show images of previous medical checks. While this takes place, the patient’s body temperature, blood pressure and other medical information is collected. It is then sent to the doctor, who can use the data in combination with the webcam interaction to diagnose the patient and write a prescription immediately.

This type of healthcare service is ideal in China because the high-level hospitals are often overcrowded and expensive. Patients are less likely to visit local health clinics because they are perceived to provide low quality care.

Implementation of the Internet hospital has been proven successful. More than 500 patients are seen every day and there are now over 1,000 sites for the medical consulting facilities. These facilities have high satisfaction scores.

The advantages of Internet of Things (IoT) that healthcare facilities benefit from are:

·       Lower costs – using IoT solutions and connected medical devices permit healthcare providers to monitor patients in real time;

·       Better patient experience – they get more engaged in treatment and doctors improve diagnosis accuracy;

·       Better drugs/medical supplies management;

·       Reduce error and waste;

·       Improved treatment outcomes – cloud computing, big data ability to access data in real time.

The end result of this is better patient response time and less capex incurred in building full fledged hospitals.

Reference:

“Internet Hospital” in China Helps Patients Access Care, https://borgenproject.org/internet-hospital-china/