Ping An’s Good Doctor app is using AI to get smarter as its user base tops 180 million
Good Doctor, the medical service app backed by Ping An Insurance, will expand its use of AI as it seeks to expand its reach across China
Ping An Good Doctor, the health care and medical mobile app backed by Ping An Insurance Group, will invest further in artificial intelligence (AI) technology as part of an ambitious push to broaden the reach of its services across mainland cities.
“We will continue to further invest in AI next year because the technology can speed up our health services by eight times,” Wang Tao, group chairman of Good Doctor, told the Post in an interview in Hong Kong.
Launched in 2015, the Good Doctor app provides free diagnosis, treatment and online appointment booking. It also enables users to communicate with health care professionals through text, photos, and video. The app has a database of articles on health care and supports a microblog-style discussion forum on health-related topics. There is also an online store that sells medications, health care products, cosmetics, and gift vouchers for medical services.
In May last year, Good Doctor secured US$500 million in financing, which valued the company at US$3 billion. Among Ping An’s portfolio of internet companies, Good Doctor and Lufax, China’s biggest peer-to-peer lender, qualify as unicorns, or companies that have a value greater than US$1 billion.
Wang said Good Doctor started using machine learning technology this year, referring to the self-learning technology that can identify patterns in data to assist in medical diagnosis and treatment.
“For example, one doctor can provide consultation services to five patients per hour. The number of patients will jump to 40 with the assistance from AI,” said Wong.