Changing Patient Behavior: How China’s Digital Platforms Are Revolutionizing Healthcare

Over the past decade, China has emerged as a global trailblazer in digital healthcare innovation. This rapid transformation has integrated internet hospitals and telemedicine seamlessly into the country’s everyday digital ecosystem. Super apps like WeChat provide consumers with communications and life management support for everything, including healthcare. It is a transformation that has revolutionised the way patients engage with, utilize, and take control of their health.

1. Everyday Digital Platforms: Gateways to Better Healthcare

In China, digital healthcare is not limited to niche applications —it’s woven into the digital fabric of daily life. WeChat, China’s most popular “everything” super app – integrates communication, social networking, e-commerce, mini-programs and mobile payment into a single ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, you can easily access digital medical services, from AI-powered symptom checkers to doctor consultations and prescription delivery. This is a critical departure from Western models, where telemedicine is still largely segmented or tethered to traditional healthcare providers.

Internet hospitals in China are regulated and can be categorized in a number of ways – they are either self-constructed and self-managed models or enterprise-run and hospital and enterprise joint-owned models, hosted by a third-party platform ¹. In 2016, there were only 32 internet hospitals: now more than 1,700. The scale of this integration is staggering. While the COVID pandemic accelerated their development, internet hospitals also fulfill a critical need. China’s urban hospitals are severely oversubscribed and are not designed to offer primary care. While more than 70% of internet hospitals are operated by public hospitals, private providers, although fewer, handle significantly greater patient volume. Some of these platforms conduct over 20,000 consultations daily.² This highlights the increasing reliance on and appeal of digital-first healthcare experiences, as well as growing trust in the service they provide.

2. Comprehensive Digital Healthcare Ecosystems

China’s internet hospital platforms, such as WeDoctor and Ping An Good Doctor, are not just booking systems – they’re fully fledged digital healthcare ecosystems. These platforms offer various provider information, including professional profiles, popularity ratings, pricing, and public education articles. They also offer AI-based health tracking, medication reminders, e-prescriptions, and delivery logistics. For many patients, this is their first point of contact with the healthcare system, representing a digital-first model and an effective way of accessing healthcare. As they also offer healthcare insurance, they are effectively a healthcare payer as well.

Figure 1: WeDoctor

These tools are also proving invaluable in supporting early diagnosis and care redirection. For instance, a patient can upload an image of a suspicious rash to an AI-driven image analysis tool, where the algorithm compares it against a vast database of dermatological conditions, offers a likely diagnosis and recommends whether to escalate to a specialist.³ This type of intelligent triage optimizes resource allocation, reduces the burden on hospitals for clinic visits, and achieves earlier diagnoses for the patient.

Figure 2: JDHealth App

3. Implications for Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Market Research

For pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, China’s digital health landscape offers a goldmine of real-time patient data and behavioral insights.

AI-powered data mining tools can detect shifts in treatment preferences, track disease symptom reports, and even predict localized health trends. This capability has immense strategic value – from guiding R&D priorities to tailoring marketing strategies around emerging needs. However, compliance is critical. All patient data must be stored and processed within China’s borders, in line with the country’s strict Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). Trust and transparency are non-negotiable pillars in this new data-driven era.

Another frontier in market research is digital Key Opinion Leader (KOL) mapping. This approach helps pharmaceutical manufacturers evaluate physician popularity, reputation, and influence, not just by follower counts, but by more nuanced metrics such as consultation volumes, patient satisfaction scores, and science communication efforts on platforms like medical public accounts (医学公众号) on WeChat and Douyin (China’s TikTok). By engaging and building relationships with digital leaders, manufacturers can gain better market understanding and undertake highly targeted, data-informed influencer strategies to shape perceptions and uptake of their healthcare products.

Figure 3: WeDoctor

4. Shift Toward Patient-Centric Digital Research

The integration of healthcare into everyday digital platforms has also revolutionized research methodologies.

Real-time, digital ethnography – observing how patients engage with healthcare in their natural online environments. This method respects privacy while offering a rich, unfiltered view into patient journeys. Digital ethnography enriches and complements the information gathered through patient interviews and surveys.

Take the example of a project we conducted on HIV, a condition that patients find difficult to talk about. We worked with a local fieldwork partner in China to conduct a digital ethnography study using WeChat. Through the app, we were able to recruit people living with HIV to share their thoughts and experiences over the course of a week. These insights, once difficult to capture, now unfold in real time. For companies focused on user-centric innovation, these environments are invaluable.⁴

5. China’s Model Demonstrates a Personalized, Platform-Native Healthcare

China’s model demonstrates that digital healthcare works best when it is integrated, rather than appended to existing systems. The success of its telemedicine expansion is rooted in platforms that people already know, trust, and use daily. From initial consultation to medication delivery, everything is handled within a familiar interface – turning passive patients into proactive participants in their own health journeys.

As global healthcare systems grapple with aging populations, rising costs, and uneven access, China’s example offers a compelling blueprint. Telemedicine is no longer a stopgap or a pandemic-era workaround – it’s a fundamental pillar of modern healthcare.

Learn more by exploring our MedTech and Innovative Methods pages.

References:

1. Li, J., & Zhang, X. (2024). Artificial intelligence–empowered healthcare in China: Progress, challenges, and future directions. Journal of Asian Public Policy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2024.2389570
2. Daxue Consulting. (n.d.). AI in healthcare in China: How artificial intelligence is reshaping the healthcare industry. Retrieved April 24, 2025, from https://daxueconsulting.com/ai-healthcare-china/
3. Infoobs. (2023, November 14). Internet healthcare’s market size is growing, and the demand for online medical consultation is strong. Retrieved April 24, 2025, from https://www.infoobs.com/article/20231114/62506.html
4. Research Partnership. (n.d.). WeChat in China: How pharma and market researchers can utilize this emerging digital platform. Retrieved April 24, 2025, from https://www.researchpartnership.com/insights/wechat-in-china-how-pharma-and-market-researchers-can-utilize-this-emerging-digital-platform/

Figure 1: WeDoctor (screenshot)

Figure 2: Figure 2: JDHealth App (screenshot)

Figure 3: Figure 3: WeDoctor (screenshot)