Xuhui Cloud Hospital integrates medicine and the Internet, reducing hospital visits amid the epidemic.

The general procedure of seeing a doctor in China involves registration with the hospital, booking an appointment with a doctor, navigating yourself to the right hospital department, waiting for your session, discussing your health conditions with the doctor, paying your medical bill and collecting your drugs. This whole process, however, has been transferred online by the Central Hospital of Xuhui District (also known as Xuhui branch of Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University), through a mobile app called “Xuhui Cloud Hospital”.

Xuhui Cloud Hospital in an app store

Such online diagnosis and treatment platforms operated by reputable hospitals in Shanghai have made their presence conspicuously felt amid this outbreak. But in fact, Shanghai has been testing the feasibility of cloud hospitals for a few years. “Xuhui Cloud Hospital” was launched during the 2015 World Internet Conference. Over the past four years or so, it has served more than 1.8 million people with 170,000 users. After the outbreak, another 37 city-level hospitals in Shanghai have begun to provide round-the-clock medical consultation services for all patients.

“You can see a doctor without leaving your home,” said Zhou Jian. Considering Wechat is the most used online communication mobile app, the Central Hospital of Xuhui District has also launched a WeChat mini program called “COVID-19 Studio”. Together with the mini program, the Xuhui Cloud Hospital provides free consultation on COVID-19 and popularizes preventive measures.

To better manage these emerging cloud hospitals, the authorities are stepping up administrative measures. Recently, Shanghai’s first ever online hospital license was granted to the Central Hospital of Xuhui District.

Online hospital license is granted to the Central Hospital of Xuhui District. 

Photo source: thepaper. cn

Apart from bringing convenience to patients and reducing the chance of cross-infection, services provided by the cloud hospital have extended from medical consultation to prescribing drugs. For example, patients with chronic illnesses, such as hypertensive patients, had to make subsequent visits to the hospital to get their prescriptions. But now, the app allows these patients to make appointments with their doctors, who will prescribe new drugs based on the patients’ medical records and any updated health information provided by them. After payment, the drugs will be delivered to the patients’ door the same day. “Patients can also buy medicine themselves at pharmacies outside the hospital by showing doctors’ prescriptions,” said Zhou Jian, director of the Central Hospital of Xuhui District. 

A doctor talks to a patient on Xuhui Cloud Hospital

Photo source: thepaper.cn

Another important step that has made cloud hospitals possible is the digitization of medical insurance cards. To have their bills covered by medical insurance, patients must have their cards with them when they go to see a doctor. Now, by linking medical insurance cards to their cloud hospital accounts, they no longer need to swipe a real card on a machine. Cloud hospitals also enable full traceability as each stage of the process, including consultation, prescription, follow-up checks and drug delivery, is recorded.

The interface of “Xuhui Cloud Hospital” adopts a straightforward and elder-friendly design. The “see a doctor” column, placed right in the center of the app’s home page, shows two options—“chronic diseases” and “novel coronavirus”—in large fonts. Patients can also purchase medicine, make appointments for other illnesses, obtain medical reports and access health records from the home page.

The next page shows all doctors available and their specializations. To begin the session, patients need to enter an online consultation room where they can communicate with the doctor they choose by sending texts and pictures and even starting a video chat.

Between January 31 and Feb. 17, an average of 210 experts provided online consultations each day. A total of 83,804 patients were received within the 18 days.

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Consultation room