Cloud pediatric service and training system established in Shanghai

Xinhua Hospital

Xinhua Hospital and China's e-commerce titan Alibaba announced yesterday they will jointly kick off a cloud pediatric system, offering Internet-based long-distance consultations, patient transferring and doctor training.

Three hospitals in a medical group headed by Xinhua, one of the leading public hospitals in the city, were included in the system on a trial basis. All general physicians and pediatricians in the medical group are covered for training.

The Xinhua pediatric medical group was established in 2016, when hospitals in four districts (Yangpu, Baoshan, Hongkou and Chongming) joined up to work together on pediatric services and professional training.

“The key to solving the current shortage of pediatricians and long-time waits in leading hospitals is to classify patients into different levels of hospitals and improve the qualification of grassroots GPs and pediatricians,” said Dr Sun Kun, president of Xinhua Hospital. “Most parents take their sick children to the four leading pediatric hospitals, which have too many patients and most of them have common diseases like cough and fever. Grassroots hospitals have very few patients, as patients don’t trust their capability.”

To deal with the problem, Xinhua launched a Pediatric Clinical Decision Support Handbook, which is written by Xinhua’s experts, to give guidance based on patients’ symptoms.

“It is like a manual, which gives detailed directions to grassroots doctors to improve their practical ability,” Sun said. “We also made online courses. All content in the book is available through video and they also can watch lectures online.”

The training system has received the recognition of health authorities in the city and from the national government, which is considering promoting the training format and giving certificates to grassroots GPs and pediatricians after passing the test.