The top three hospitals in various places have increased their investment in online diagnosis and treatment. Which Internet hospital has a strong influence？

Beijing and Shanghai still lead, but the number of shortlisted departments has decreased slightly; The number of shortlisted departments in Shandong, Zhejiang, Sichuan and other regions has increased; Hospitals in central Anhui and western Gansu provinces were shortlisted for the first time, achieving a breakthrough.

In the past three years, public hospitals have accelerated the construction of Internet medical care and put more resources into online diagnosis and treatment.

According to the latest "2022 National Hospital Internet Impact Index" released by the Health Industry Development Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, Shanghai and other top three hospitals are in a leading position in Internet influence, and the depth of Internet medical services continues to improve.

The "2022 National Hospital Internet Impact Index" (hereinafter referred to as the "Index") was released in the seventh year, and the data included 80.83 million patients’ Internet medical service records and 770 million doctor-patient exchanges.

The index published 36 specialties and 335 departments with a high degree of Internet integration, distributed in 138 hospitals in 24 cities in 19 provinces. From the perspective of regional distribution, regional differences still exist, with 103 departments in Beijing and 77 departments in Shanghai shortlisted for the "index" to lead Internet medical care.

In terms of hospitals, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking University First Hospital, Xijing Hospital, Huashan Hospital, Renji Hospital and Ruijin Hospital are the most shortlisted departments.

Since its publication, the seven hospitals ranked first in the discipline are Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, Cardiovascular Department of Fuwai Hospital of China Academy of Medical Sciences, Cardiovascular Department of Fuwai Hospital of China Academy of Medical Sciences, Nephrology Department of Eastern Theater General Hospital, Stomatology/Maxillofacial Surgery of Peking University Stomatological Hospital, Plastic Surgery of Ninth People’s Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, and Infectious Diseases Department of Beijing You ‘an Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University. The first six are ranked first for seven consecutive years.

Chen Qiulin, deputy director of the Health Industry Development Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, said that the regional differences in hospital Internet influence still exist, but the development is more balanced: Beijing and Shanghai still lead, but the number of shortlisted departments has decreased slightly; The number of shortlisted departments in Shandong, Zhejiang, Sichuan and other regions has increased; Hospitals in central Anhui and western Gansu provinces were shortlisted for the first time, achieving a breakthrough.

At the "Seminar on Internet Assisting the High-quality Development of Medical Discipline" held on the 26th, Shen Baiyong, vice president of Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, said that during this year’s epidemic, all services of Ruijin Hospital were not interrupted because of the existence of Internet hospitals. For some patients who have been followed up in Ruijin Hospital for a long time, the hospital has not interrupted their treatment continuity. Through this epidemic, the hospital reached a consensus that the role of Internet hospitals has been greatly improved and its importance has been re-recognized.

Internet medical care has also expanded the influence of some public hospitals in relatively remote areas and ushered in new development opportunities. The endocrinology department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Hebei North University, which won the third place in the national influence of endocrinology department, is located in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province. In the past, the scope of diagnosis and treatment was mainly limited to patients at the junction of Beijing, Tianjin and Mongolia. Internet medical treatment expanded the scope of diagnosis and treatment in this department to all provinces and regions in the country. According to the online data of Good Doctor, at present, the total number of visits in this department has reached about 2.8 million, serving more than 31,000 patients.

Ren Weidong, director of the Department of Endocrinology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Hebei North University, said that a large number of patients with chronic diseases have gathered in the endocrinology department, and these patients need to go back to the hospital repeatedly. However, due to the long distance, these patients with chronic diseases can’t afford to run to the hospital, and many patients’ follow-up is interrupted. At the same time, the number of outpatients is very limited, which is difficult to meet the needs of patients. In 2020, the epidemic interrupted the communication channels between doctors and patients. To this end, the department decided to "collectively go online" to provide better services for patients.

Chen Qiulin said that in the past ten years, the field of Internet medical care has gone through three stages: the first stage is before 2018, with spontaneous exploration and innovation in industries and hospitals as the mainstay; The second stage is from 2018 to 2019, when the policy explicitly encourages development and the industry receives a policy dividend; The third stage is that after the epidemic in 2020, Internet+medical health has opened up a "second battlefield" against the epidemic, which has further improved users’ and doctors’ awareness of Internet medical care and achieved all-round development.

Shen Baiyong said that at present, there are three modes of Internet medical care, namely, the self-built Internet of public hospitals, the Internet of medical insurance cooperation and the Internet hospital of third-party platforms. Each of the three modes has its own advantages and disadvantages, and different patients and different people have different needs. The internet medical model of medical+insurance cooperation is aimed at relatively high-end medical needs; The Internet built by public hospitals such as Ruijin Hospital and the third-party online Internet medical platform are more oriented to the general public.

After 2020, an important change in Internet medical care is that public hospitals have started to build their own Internet medical platforms.

Hua Keqin, secretary of the Party Committee of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, said that as the "national team" of obstetrics and gynecology, 67% of non-local incurable diseases come here, but the road is long, the condition is complicated, the course of disease is prolonged, and many people give up halfway, and it is not uncommon to delay the illness and miss the best diagnosis and treatment period without timely diagnosis and treatment. Internet medical tools have initially realized the time-space docking between doctors and patients, which not only helps patients find their counterparts, but also advances the diagnosis and treatment services from "in-patient" to "before-hospital" and "after-hospital".

Take the online "outpatient full appointment" system in our hospital as an example. After the system is implemented, patients can choose their favorite time points in various ways to make appointments in different periods. On the first day of the implementation of this system, the number of appointments has increased by nearly 6 times compared with the past, greatly improving the satisfaction of patients. Two weeks after the introduction of full appointment, statistics show that the waiting time of general outpatients has been shortened from 40 to 60 minutes to an average of 12 minutes, and the advance appointment rate has increased from the initial 18% to 55%.

Hua Keqin said that at present, the development of Internet medical care is also facing some problems. At present, the biggest challenge is: the information system of public hospitals is diversified, how to realize data sharing and interconnection? How to avoid repeated collection of patient data and waste of medical resources? How to develop and construct a health big data system? Only when the third-party platform goes in the same direction as public hospitals, can the integration and convergence better maximize the benefits of patients.