A few days ago, the rehabilitation therapist of the first Internet hospital in Nantong, Jiangsu Province conducted a video consultation with the patient’s family to answer health consultation. Photo by Xu Congjun (People’s Vision)
Shanghai Children’s Hospital Internet Hospital includes online consultation, online follow-up, remote visit and other functions, providing convenient and efficient services for patients. Liu Daowei (Xinhua News Agency)
During the epidemic prevention period, many hospitals and Internet health platforms in China have launched online medical services. At the same time, chaos and disputes in many industries have also become the focus of public opinion. Insiders pointed out that the Internet medical industry should reflect in time, rectify the chaos, break through the limitations, and pave the way for the healthy and stable development of the Internet medical industry.
Pay attention to online shopping for drugs
During the epidemic prevention period, the advantage of "convenient purchase, no need to go out deliberately" makes online drug purchase a new choice for people. With the rapid growth of online drug users, the chaos of online drug sales such as "no prescription to buy drugs" and "drugs are not symptomatic" has gradually surfaced.
According to media reports, some patients have successfully purchased prescription drugs such as cephalosporins on individual online platforms; Network "doctors" can "open" electronic prescriptions containing antibiotics for users after a simple inquiry and exchange, and even have a platform to push "promotional coupons" for prescription drugs; Some patients also complained that some platforms have the behavior of "selling drugs at a higher price" and "recommending non-symptomatic drugs".
According to the analysis of insiders, the illegal activities in the process of online drug sales mainly include the following three categories: First, using the Internet to sell counterfeit drugs; Second, it has not obtained the qualification of Internet drug trading and illegally engaged in drug sales; Third, it has the qualification of internet drug information service or drug trading, but it publishes false drug information or illegally sells drugs to deceive the public.
In this regard, some experts said that online sales of drugs are not limited to buying and selling through online platforms, but also include prescription issuance, review, drug circulation and use. If the restrictions are circumvented in drug sales, circulation and use, the higher the convenience of online drug sales, the greater the risk, so we must not relax in the whole process management norms of various online drug sales.
"Full chain" is strictly supervised
In response to all kinds of online drug sales chaos, National Health Commission, National Medical Insurance Bureau, National Medical Products Administration and other six departments recently issued "Opinions on Strengthening Pharmaceutical Affairs Management in Medical Institutions to Promote Rational Drug Use", clearly pointing out that "internet plus Pharmaceutical Services" should be standardized. Zhejiang, Shandong and other places have also introduced relevant measures to actively explore online drug purchase, and major online drug sales platforms have also standardized personal health information registration and relevant tips for epidemic prevention and control.
"The key to selling drugs online, especially prescription drugs, lies in the authenticity and reliability of prescriptions." Chen Qiulin, director of the Health Economics Research Office of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics of China Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that in addition to strengthening the supervision on the sales of prescription drugs, we should also improve the medical qualification certification mechanism for doctors and pharmacists, and at the same time, we should introduce corresponding supporting management measures in prescription issuance and audit, so as to form the whole process, whole link and whole chain supervision.
As for the online medical supplies platform, we must also formulate various safety prevention and control measures in strict accordance with the requirements of national laws and regulations. Wang Qiang, vice president of Ali Health and head of the pharmaceutical business department, suggested that the platform can set up a rational drug use system, such as through functional modules such as adaptation symptoms, compatibility contraindications, usage and dosage, and gradually guide users to purchase drugs reasonably and doctors to make reasonable diagnosis and treatment.
While strengthening supervision and curbing the chaos in the industry, the Internet medical industry should further increase its integration with physical medical institutions, and fill in the shortcomings of "queuing for one hour to see a doctor for three minutes" in offline medical care. In addition, the Internet medical platform should improve the utilization efficiency of high-quality medical resources, provide patients with medical consultation, diagnosis and treatment of common diseases, daily management of chronic diseases, management of special groups and other services through the Internet, and constantly improve the online medical service system.
What do you think of online first diagnosis?
With the continuous development of internet diagnosis and treatment, the discussion about the first diagnosis on the open line has once again entered the public eye. Due to the consideration of regulatory standards and medical risks, Article 16 of the Administrative Measures for Internet Diagnosis and Treatment (Trial) clearly stipulates that "Internet diagnosis and treatment activities shall not be carried out for first-time patients", and the first-time Internet diagnosis and treatment system has been difficult to land.
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Central Network Information Office issued the "Implementation Plan on Promoting the Action of" Using Numbers to Empower Wisdom "to Cultivate New Economic Development", which mentioned for the first time from the national level that Internet medical care can be the first consultation and included in medical insurance. The release of the new document seems to bring a turning point for the opening of the first Internet medical treatment, but some experts in the field of health care are cautious about this. They believe that as far as the medical process of the first-time patients is concerned, most of the examinations can’t be realized online except stating the condition, and the lack of examination means is difficult to make up through the qualifications and experience of doctors, which may lead to undiagnosed or even misdiagnosed cases.
As a supporter of the Internet medical first consultation system, Liao Xinbo, a former inspector of the Guangdong Provincial Health Department, pointed out that the limitations brought by inspection methods can be broken through modern scientific means, such as the tongue picture of Chinese medicine is more accurate than personal subjective observation; Ophthalmoscope can also be clearly transmitted to mobile devices, and it can also overcome the errors caused by doctors’ inconsistent knowledge and experience.
"The first consultation of Internet medical care can be liberalized within certain conditions, such as specifying specific diseases, special patients, special systems, special areas and special scenes." Chen Jinxiong, chairman of the Electronic Medical Records and Electronic Health Professional Committee of China Medical Information Society, said that during the epidemic prevention period, the advantages of Internet diagnosis and treatment were further highlighted, especially in the case of lack of medical resources, online first diagnosis can obviously release more resources to treat patients. "With the advancement of technology and the deepening of people’s understanding of Internet medical care, Internet medical care will definitely play an increasingly important role." Chen Jinxiong said.
