JD.com’s health care subsidiary to drive telemedicine in China with new family-friendly service
- JD Health enables a family of up to eight people to get their health records preserved in its system, while providing all members with remote access to doctors
- That new approach to telemedicine represents how China’s private sector is seizing the enormous opportunity to help shape the country’s heath care market
Its new JD Family Doctor service enables a family of up to eight people to get their health records preserved in its system after one member signs up. The whole family also gets access to 24-hour online consultation services – using text, photographs, video or voice calls – provided by general practitioners.
“I hope we can set a new standard in the industry,” said Xin Lijun, chief executive of JD Health, at a press conference launching the service on Tuesday in Beijing. The aim of the new service is to “not let users move around medical resources, but let resources move around users”, he said.
“JD Family Doctor will be closely integrated with the country's primary health care system,” Xin said without elaborating. He added that the personalised approach of the service, referring to doctors’ access to relevant family medical records, would help “improve the entire family doctor experience in China”.
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That new approach to telemedicine represents how China’s private sector is seizing the enormous opportunity to help shape the country’s heath care market, which is projected to be worth 16 trillion yuan (US$2.3 trillion) by 2030.
In the last round of reforms Beijing carried out about a decade ago, it targeted universal health insurance coverage and the provision of affordable health care services for all by this year. The coronavirus pandemic drew in online medical service providers to fill some of the gaps left behind by the last round of reforms – and it is these enterprises that China is expected to call upon, as it strengthens the national health care infrastructure over the coming decade.