Family Doctor services to cover more people

Shanghai-based Ping An Good Doctor will push its Family Doctor strategy, with AI diagnosis and online health-care services in China, which may ease hospital and social pressure in an aging society.

Online health care service and a GP-based (general practitioner-based) health service network will become key digital infrastructure and service in Shanghai to improve people's life conditions, according to a city digital development blueprint released recently.

"Good Doctor continues to improve its online to offline services and will strive to provide customers with easier, faster and more affordable services," said Fang Weihao, chairman and CEO of Ping An Good Doctor.

The Family Doctor membership covers services like artificial intelligence and remote doctor diagnosis, online drug store and delivery services, health management, chronic illness management and elderly people care. It features a "full life-cycle electronic health profile" for each user.

The company now has about 400 million registered users and has had about 1.2 billion times of inquiries, with a daily volume of 1 million-plus online inquiries.

In 2020, China's medical and health-care spending reached 9 trillion yuan (US$1.41 trillion), which is expected to hit 15 trillion yuan by 2025, representing a huge potential, according to researcher Frost & Sullivan.

Hong Kong-listed Ping An Good Doctor aims to expand its Family Doctor membership to enterprises and organizations, compared with which consumers are more willing and have the ability to pay, the company said.

In Shanghai, an increasing number of health-care services are provided at community-based health facilities or online services, which may ease pressure on public hospitals, especially in an aging community.

In the future, local people will be able to enjoy more digital services covering health care, education, residency, transportation, culture and tourism as well as consumption. Digital hospitals with online diagnosis and online inquiry are parts of Shanghai's digital development blueprint until 2025, city officials said recently.