Oct 29, 2020|

JD Health: China’s Chief Health Officer for a Healthy China

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by Ella Kidron

JD Health held its partners conference on October 29th in Chengdu, Sichuan province under the theme “Photosynthesis and Symbiosis”. At the event, which convened over 1,000 industry partners, policy makers, medical experts and members of the media, JD Health CEO Lijun Xin announced the upgrade of JD Health to become the nation’s “Chief Health Officer”. With supply chain as the core, and medical services as the starting point, JD Health will provide a digitization-driven full-user lifecycle and scenario health management platform.

 

JD Health CEO Lijun Xin

JD Health CEO Lijun Xin

COVID-19 has accelerated the digitization of the global economy. Ever more diverse healthcare needs, especially in terms of internet healthcare, have created immense opportunity for the digitization of the health industry.

According to Statista, in 2020 China’s online healthcare market was estimated to reach around RMB 94 billion yuan, 26 billion yuan more than the previous year. Even with such rapid growth, the Internet medical services industry in China is considered a “blue ocean” – the companies involved have just scratched the surface in terms of penetration. JD Health’s strong supply chain abilities as well as the legacy of trust of the JD platform among users, are a few of the reasons why it is among the key players in the industry. In the last year, JD Health has not only grown rapidly, but also made significant moves in providing Internet medical infrastructure to support society’s healthcare needs.

A look at JD Health’s past year

Last year, JD introduced several initiatives to help people of needy groups access and afford quality medicine, improve the capacity of primary health care services and promote the realization of a chronic disease management ecosystem. Over the past year, relying on JD Health’s advantages in supply chain and technology, the company has worked with partners to implement these plans one by one.

In May, JD Health launched the “Healthy China Medical Subsidy Project”. The project provides RMB 1,000 yuan per person per year for drug purchase subsidies for needy households across the country which can be used to make purchases from a catalog of eligible drugs. With the support of partners, by the end of September, the program’s subsidized drug list had more than 600 drugs covering hundreds of common diseases.

In August 2020, JD Health released its “Family Doctor” services based on an “internet +healthcare” model. This new type of telehealth service is tailored to the needs of an increasing number of Chinese families seeking more timely, consistent and comprehensive healthcare support. At the time of the announcement, Xin said, “The core value of the ‘family doctor’ product exists in that it can offer different medical service formats based on patients’ need and match medical resources more accurately. Gathering more quality medical resources around users is what is really needed now. This new experience and business model will set a new benchmark in this industry.”

From the end of 2019 through September of this year, JD Health has established 17 Internet medical centers for a wide range of specialties, including cardiology, diabetes, ENT, respiratory, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and more. JD Health’s specialized centers provide a model for the integration of online and offline prevention, treatment and rehabilitation for chronic diseases.

What’s next?

Xin said, “Under the ‘new normal’, the medicine and health industry is accelerating digital transformation and upgrading. The popularization of emerging technologies is gradually changing medical and health services scenarios.” He explained JD’s desire to connect with more partners across fields to flourish, accelerate the improvement of medical and health supply and service quality and contribute to the “Healthy China” strategy.

 

(ella@jd.com)

 

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