FOCUS: The future of Medicine in China 中国医学的未来

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Nearly the fifth of the world’s population resides in China, making access and affordability to healthcare extremely challenging. Like many of the world’s healthcare systems, China’s approach to medicine has focused on disease-curing, instead of taking a preventative approach. Until recently, there was a shortage in primary care and family physicians, because of the lack of focus on training capable and competent practitioners in these areas. This created a disconnection between family physicians and patients, as well as a disregard for preventative medicine approaches. Patients were, and still are, unable to be properly educated about preventative measure and the severity of their ailments. Instead of them being treated at lower level facilities, the patients end up queuing for the top specialists creating a burden on the system. 

One of China’s greatest strengths is that they have universal health insurance coverage and limit the private practice of medicine due to the market failure in medical care. In addition, China is moving away from the multiple-payer system and working towards a single-payer system to reduce the escalation of healthcare costs. The future of medicine in China is all about access and prevention medicine. Now that the focus is shifting towards the importance of training family practitioners, they are also trying to increase the access to them. This problem of access is being addressed by assigning family physicians to work in under-served areas to reach a larger community of people.

中国医疗服务极具挑战性。目前中国的医疗方法一直专注于疾病治疗，而不是采取预防措施。初级保健和家庭医生短缺，相关领域培训缺乏，造成医疗系统挑战重重。中国医学的未来关于预防医学，培养家庭医生，让更大的人群寻求家庭医生的服务尤其重要。

The future of medicine in China not only focuses on the preventative and accessible approach to medicine, but also the technological. China wants to become a major centre for innovation by the year 2020, and by 2050, they want to become a global leader in science and innovation. This drive for innovation is tangled with the digital health revolution, including the adoption of such technologies like chatbots, artificial intelligence, and telemedicine. 

中国医学的未来不仅侧重于预防医学的方法，而且还侧重于技术。中国希望成为科学和创新的全球领导者。这种创新动力与数字健康革命紧密相关，包括采用聊天机器人，人工智能和远程医疗等技术。

The guahao section of WeChat’s Public Services for Beijing, including (r)a list of hospitals and (l) a list of doctors from the pediatric department of a hospital and their availability

One of the newest technology adoptions is WeChat and considering its viability in healthcare. The idea is to use WeChat not only for identification, but also to place patient’s medical health records in their hands digitally. There is a network of over 38,000 medical facilities that are participating in this program where users can book doctor’s appointments in order to reduce long lines at medical facilities. Their medical reports are directly delivered to their WeChat and they can also pay their medical bills directly in the app. The app also has prevention focused features, such as a step count tracker.

采用的最新技术之一是微信，并考虑其在医疗保健方面的可行性。使用微信不仅用于识别，还用于预约医生，排队，发放医疗报告及支付费用。

An app like this can even be adapted to take the burden off primary care physicians by utilizing chatbots. Chatbots could potentially assist patients with simpler medical problems and give suggestions to try at home before heading to the doctor. This is an especially useful piece of technology, because it can increase access to resource-strained areas in China. Chatbots would assist physicians by triaging patients’ ailments, but these Chatbots can also be coupled with telemedicine for even greater access. 

有的APP甚至还可以利用聊天机器人来减轻初级保健医生的负担。

The Tencent Doctorwork WeChat public account: (r) A dashboard for monitoring your vitals and health stats and (l) automated testing services are available for diabetes and pregnancy

Beijing's Tencent Clinic

Integrating telemedicine into China’s healthcare system can revolutionize the future of medicine in China and their healthcare system. Telemedicine not only increases patient’s access to doctors, but can get non-prescription medicine and personal care products through the service. A simple app can be downloaded to the patient’s phone, they fill out a questionnaire on the app to determine what their medical needs are, and then the products can be delivered to them the same day, and in most cases, within the hour. Telemedicine can go even further by connecting patients to their doctor, or to a network of doctors within a cloud-based hospital. Hypertension, diabetes, primary care needs and psychological consultations can be conducted from the comfort of the patient’s home reducing overcrowding at hospitals and clinics.

远程医疗整合到中国的医疗保健系统可以彻底改变中国医药及其医疗系统的未来。

Radiologist doctor from Shanghai Huashan Hospital reads a medical image display during a competition with BioMind, an artificial intelligence system

Overall the future of medicine in China is bright, innovative, and highly progressive, but it is going to take time to integrate so much technology into a system that is already inundated with patients. As long as the government invites all the stakeholders of healthcare to the table, they have the opportunity to revolutionize the way we approach medicine. 

总之，中国医学的未来是光明的，但技术整合需要时间。

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Business Tianjin 2019 June issue

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