An app a day: China embraces tele-medicine to keep the doctor away

As the coronavirus crisis rages, a Chinese woman working in Paris takes to a computer to consult a doctor thousands of kilometres away in Shanghai about a worrisome cough and headache. The physician says she probably has the common cold and prescribes rest, in a cyber-consultation that embodies the huge push the coronavirus epidemic has given tele-medicine.

As millions of Chinese heed official calls to reduce person-to-person encounters, are fearful of entering hospitals, or simply can't reach clinics due to virus-related transport restrictions, tele-medicine is booming. Online platforms for consulting doctors - offered by tech leaders Tencent, Alibaba and a range of other providers - have reported a surge in demand since the virus emerged in January. The popular health app of Ping An Insurance Group, one of the world's biggest insurers, has been visited 11 billion times since the outbreak erupted, the company said.

New users of the platform have multiplied ten-fold and it now counts at least 315 million customers who make 729,000 inquiries per day at clinics nationwide.

Wedoctor, an app backed by Tencent, launched a special coronavirus platform on January 23. It said that by the end of February thousands of doctors had provided nearly 1.5 million consultations through the programme. Ali Health meanwhile, a healthcare app provided by Alibaba, said even as early as January 31 that the platform had more than 1,000 doctors participating and over 3,000 patients per hour seeking consultations.

Shanghai's Xuhui Central Hospital allowed journalists to sit in on online doctor visits Monday. The facility began experimenting with tele-medicine in 2015 and last month received a government licence to operate what it calls a "cloud hospital". Internet consultations have grown from virtually nil on February 25 to 5,293 as of Sunday. Users download an app, then join a queue of patients. After a brief consultation, doctors give medical advice which may include merely rest, consulting a specialist - which also can be done online - or prescription medication.