The National Health and Safety Commission has called for the vigorous development of Internet diagnosis and treatment se

Since the first case of novel coronavirus pneumonia has been confirmed, the epidemic has spread throughout the country. As of 16: 00 on February 10, the number of confirmed cases in China has reached 40,249 and 23,589 suspected cases. While all localities have adopted centralized treatment and isolation for confirmed patients, suspected patients, fever patients who cannot be clearly excluded from infection, and close contacts, in order to avoid the risk of cross-infection caused by personnel mobility, various measures such as city closure, village closure, community closed management, and restriction on the number of trips have been implemented.

At present, on the one hand, medical teams from all provinces and cities are going to Hubei epidemic areas to support the frontline, causing the overall offline medical resources of the local place to be strained. On the other hand, under the influence of traffic control and other factors, or due to cross-infection concerns, residents are restricted from seeking medical treatment offline.

In order to solve the above problems, breaking the limitation of doctor-patient space, expanding the medical service space and improving the medical efficiency have become the urgent affairs, and Internet medical treatment is undoubtedly the most important way with the above functions.

During the epidemic prevention and control period, the use of the Internet medical service platform to carry out online diagnosis and treatment services has again won the approval of a series of policies from the central to local levels.

Strengthening Informationization to Support Epidemic Prevention and Control, Telemedicine and Online Consultation are Supported Again

In order to give full play to the supporting role of informatization in assisting epidemic research and judgment, innovating diagnosis and treatment models, and improving service efficiency, the General Office of the National Health Commission released Notice on Strengthening Information Support for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia Epidemic caused by 2019-nCoV (GWBGHH [2020] No. 100) on February 4.

The notice focuses on giving full play to the role of remote medical platforms in various provinces, encouraging major hospitals to provide services such as remote consultation, prevention and control guidance, and using information technology to sink expert resources to improve the ability of base medical and health institutions to deal with epidemic situations.

Meanwhile, for self-isolated patients with medical service needs, the notice also pointed out that the unique advantages of Internet hospitals and Internet diagnosis and treatment should be fully used. Medical institutions at all levels can use "internet +" to carry out online voluntary consultation, home medical observation guidance and other services for pneumonia infected by novel coronavirus, as well as online follow-up and drug distribution services for some patients with common diseases and chronic diseases, so as to guide patients to seek medical treatment online in an orderly manner and avoid the risk of cross-infection in offline medical treatment.

During this period, various Internet medical platforms, including AICARE wisdom medical, successively initiated doctor recruitment, and successively set up online consultations and free consultations for fever, diabetes and other chronic diseases, and free diagnosis and other treatment services.

Vigorously Develop Internet Diagnosis and Treatment Services, Affirm the Role of Internet Diagnosis and Treatment Consulting Services in Epidemic Prevention and Control

Only four days after the announcement of the above notice, on February 7, the general office of the national health Committee issued another "Notice on Doing A Good Job of Internet Diagnosis and Treatment Consulting Service in Epidemic Prevention and Control" (GWBYH [2020] No.112), which also means that the national policy level highly recognizes the internet diagnosis and treatment service mode during the special period.

The notice calls for vigorous development of Internet diagnosis and treatment services and further improvement of the "Internet+ medical health" service functions, including but not limited to online health assessment, health guidance, health education, and follow-up of chronic diseases, to promote Internet diagnosis and treatment services to play a more important role in epidemic prevention and control, so that people can obtain timely health assessment and professional guidance, accurately guide patients to go to home online for treatment, effectively relieve the pressure of hospital treatment, and reduce the concentration of personnel and unnecessary risks caused thereby.

Meanwhile, the qualified medical institutions are called to make full use of the Internet hospital platform of the unit, Internet medical service platform, etc., to carry out free online consultation, home medical observation guidance and health assessment services for novel coronavirus, so as to guide patients to seek orderly and see a doctor accurately.

From Policy to Industrial Internet Health Care, a New Round of Development Period Will Be Coming

Since the above policies were issued, 10 provinces and cities including Hubei, Guangdong and Shandong have successively issued policies to strengthen online consultation services for Internet diagnosis and treatment. Meanwhile, research data from the industry's head media show that more than 100 entity hospitals and head agencies in the Internet medical industry have opened online consultation services for diseases such as novel coronavirus pneumonia.

At present, Internet medicine may not be able to directly participate in the treatment of patients, but through online consultation, chronic disease management and other above services, on the one hand, it helps to realize the dynamic management of quarantine personnel and real-time screening of suspected patients, and plays a key role in the early detection and early reporting of infectious diseases. On the other hand, it can also solve the urgent needs of patients with chronic diseases requiring medical treatment during the special period, and effectively avoid risks while ensuring the safety and efficiency of medical treatment.

Facing the epidemic prevention and control, the Internet medical industry has demonstrated the social responsibility and value. Regarding Internet medicine, the Public Policy Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences describes it as "the second battlefield for epidemic prevention and control", which is extremely appropriate in this special period.

With the application of more Internet medical services in this period, such as remote consultation, online inquiry, online follow-up prescription, online medical training, etc., the acceptance and trust of the whole society to the Internet medical industry will definitely be improved.

From the promotion of policies to the perfection of industrial ecology and the recognition of users, I believe that after the epidemic, the development of the entire Internet medical industry is expected to meet a new round