New technologies dominate the consumer behavior and lifestyle. Mobile technology, social media and e-commerce impose a significant challenge for the healthcare sector, but also represent a tremendous opportunity for innovation and individualization of treatment to suit patients’ needs.
China is facing three main health problems
China is growing old; in 2016, 142 million Chinese were 65 or older, equating to 10.35% of the population.
Chronic diseases now constitute a major public health issue in the country. According to the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China, doctors diagnose 260 million people with chronic illnesses every year. With expensive treatment costs and longer recovery time, the Chinese healthcare system is tension-laden.
In 2015, China was home of estimated 110 million people suffering from diabetes, roughly 11% of its population, according to the International Diabetes Federation’s “Diabetes Atlas” (IDF). Diabetes becoming the heaviest burden on the Chinese healthcare system, IDF estimates that yearly treatment costs will reach $47 billion by 2030.
How mobile health can help these issues
In 2016, the Chinese mobile health was estimated at 7 billion RMB and is projected to exceed 10 billion RMB by 2017. The Chinese mobile health application market has expanded in the last five years. So far, these mobile healthcare apps have basic functions, like self-diagnosis and medical examination or information research. Due to the marriage of digital technology and healthcare, the Chinese healthcare system could gain a big opportunity to reduce stress coming from health issues. Mobile health has the potential to transform healthcare service and improve the quality of care and the outcome for the patient. A healthcare more effective, more efficient and cheaper could become true via mobile devices.
For example, mobile health apps are affordable for most rural patients. Over 26% of mobile healthcare users earn less than 1999 RMB per month. They prefer self-diagnosis rather than consulting a doctor. As a result, the demand for efficient medical information sharing is increasingly significant. Accurate electronic prescriptions can help patients save money otherwise spent on unnecessary prescriptions and treatments.
