Digital doctors: China sees tech cure for healthcare woes

Liu Chunming almost died after a car crash in July in Taihe, a remote county in China’s southeast Jiangxi province, but survived serious abdominal injuries thanks to specialist doctors who led his treatment from 1,000 kms (621 miles) away. From a central “operations room” in the eastern city of Hangzhou, doctors diagnosed and directed treatment for the 48-year-old using live video feeds and software that shares patient scans and files to aid consultation. Liu’s case - one of a growing number of distance healthcare cases in China - reflects the rise in digital healthcare, or eHealth, to bridge the chasm between China’s developed health services in large cities and its grassroots rural care. And that’s a multi-billion dollar opportunity for technology firms.

Technologies like remote health fit China’s current situation because we have a large country with a rural-urban gap and medical resources spread unequally.

Yan Jianhua, who oversees the remote healthcare program at the state-run Hangzhou hospital

To be sure, technology - from electronic patient records to remote healthcare - is already widely used in developed markets such as the United States and Europe, but the sheer size and scale of China make this a huge opportunity for tech firms and a big challenge for doctors, who say China lags far behind. China’s healthcare management sector is growing at close to 40 percent a year and will hit $38 billion in the next five years, according to local consultancy Raisewin International. Technology is playing a growing role as Beijing overhauls a healthcare management sector blighted by chaotic patient data, underfunded rural health centers, overburdened city hospitals and a nationwide shortage of doctors.

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