Health & Beauty

A few days ago, the National Health Commission and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine jointly issued the "Internet Diagnosis and Treatment Supervision Regulations (Trial)" (referred to as the "Detailed Regulations"), which proposed that medical institutions should carry out Internet diagnosis and treatment activities, and the prescription should be issued by the receiving doctor himself, and the use of manual labor is strictly prohibited. Intelligent and other automatic generation of prescriptions, it is strictly forbidden to provide medicines to patients before the prescription is issued, and it is strictly forbidden to unify prescriptions for commercial purposes.

Industry insiders said that in the long run, regulatory policies will help clarify the boundaries and responsibilities of Internet diagnosis and treatment. As relevant regulatory policies become increasingly transparent and standardized, medical service companies with sound compliance systems are expected to benefit.

The use of artificial intelligence to automatically generate prescriptions is strictly prohibited

The "Detailed Rules" propose that provincial health authorities should establish a provincial Internet medical service supervision platform (referred to as "provincial supervision platform") to supervise medical institutions (referred to as "medical institutions") that carry out Internet diagnosis and treatment activities. The Internet hospital, which is the second name of a physical medical institution, is verified at the same time as the physical medical institution; the Internet hospital that relies on the physical medical institution to obtain the "Medical Institution Practicing License" independently is verified once a year.

In terms of personnel supervision, the "Detailed Rules" proposes that doctors must conduct real-name authentication before receiving medical consultations to ensure that they provide diagnosis and treatment services. Other personnel, artificial intelligence software, etc. shall not fraudulently use or substitute doctors to provide diagnosis and treatment services. The competent health departments at all levels shall be responsible for supervising the personnel who conduct Internet diagnosis and treatment in the medical institution.

Zhao Wei, deputy director of the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases and vice president of Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said that the above regulations are conducive to ensuring the authenticity of Internet diagnosis and treatment. 1 A relevant person from PharmaNet stated that the "Detailed Rules" carefully regulate the behavior of institutions and personnel involved in Internet diagnosis and treatment, and have clear requirements for the quality and safety of Internet diagnosis and treatment.

In terms of business supervision, the "Detailed Rules" propose that Internet diagnosis and treatment implement a real-name system, and patients are obliged to provide real identity certificates and basic information to medical institutions, and must not pretend to be others to seek medical treatment. For medical institutions to carry out Internet diagnosis and treatment activities, the prescriptions should be issued by the receiving physicians themselves, and the use of artificial intelligence to automatically generate prescriptions is strictly prohibited. Prescription drugs shall be sold, dispensed and used on the basis of a physician's prescription. It is strictly prohibited to provide medicines to patients before a prescription is issued. Reconciliation for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited. If a medical institution conducts drug distribution by itself or entrusts a third party, relevant agreements and prescription circulation information shall be traceable, and data interfaces shall be opened to the provincial supervision platform.

1 The relevant person in the drug network said that the "Detailed Rules" on prescription related regulations can eliminate the "prescription chaos" in Internet diagnosis and treatment, and unify the standards for online and offline prescriptions, so as to avoid risks caused by irregular prescriptions, and further highlight the importance of medical safety. It will help promote the "good money drives out bad money" in the Internet diagnosis and treatment industry, and is conducive to the expansion of powerful and standardized enterprises.

In addition, the "Detailed Rules" propose that medical institutions should ensure that Internet diagnosis and treatment activities are traceable and traceable throughout the process, and open data interfaces to provincial regulatory platforms. Encourage qualified provinces to set rules for determining the rationality of Internet diagnosis and treatment in the provincial supervision platform, and use emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to carry out analysis and supervision; the electronic medical record information generated by medical institutions in the process of Internet diagnosis and treatment should be related to the Internet. The electronic medical record format of the supporting entity medical institutions is consistent and systematically shared, and the supporting entity medical institutions carry out online and offline integrated quality control.

In this regard, Shu Ting, an expert from the Hospital Management Research Institute of the National Health and Health Commission, said that from the requirements of the "Detailed Rules", it can be seen that new technical means should be used for the supervision of emerging business formats. The requirements for Internet diagnosis and treatment are the integration of online and offline, to realize the connection between online and in-hospital systems, and the supervision requirements for Internet diagnosis and treatment are also online and offline integration.

Return to "serious medical care"

What impact will the release of the new regulations have on Internet diagnosis and treatment? In this regard, Zhao Wei said that the "Detailed Rules" clarified the regulatory requirements for Internet diagnosis and treatment of medicine, medical treatment, technology, etc., emphasized the core position of physical medical institutions in Internet diagnosis and treatment, and truly realized the "homogeneity" of Internet diagnosis and treatment and physical institution diagnosis and treatment services. "Serious medical treatment", allowing Internet diagnosis and treatment to return to the essential positioning of "serious medical care".

The relevant person in charge of the Medical Federation said that the introduction of the "Detailed Rules" opened a new chapter in the Internet medical industry, and further clarified the goal of healthy development around Internet diagnosis and treatment, relying on physical medical institutions and supported by informatization, targeting medical institutions. , personnel, service quality and safety to carry out standardized supervision. The "Detailed Rules" marks the return of Internet diagnosis and treatment to the essential positioning of "serious medical treatment", and is of great significance to the new era of healthy development of Internet diagnosis and treatment.

1 A relevant person from PharmaNet said that after years of development of Internet diagnosis and treatment, with the advancement of technology and the impact of the epidemic, the market size has continued to grow, and the industry needs clear policies to guide future development. The promulgation of the "Detailed Rules" means that Internet diagnosis and treatment has entered a more orderly and standardized development stage.

Wanlian Securities believes that the Internet medical industry has grown rapidly in recent years, especially the new crown pneumonia epidemic has brought a large number of online diagnosis and treatment needs. However, the top-level design of the industry is not perfect, and there is a lack of industry supervision and unified standards, and industry chaos occurs from time to time. The "Detailed Rules" issued this time emphasize the network security, data security, and quality control of electronic medical records in medical institutions, and regulate the entire process of Internet diagnosis and treatment information flow, which will promote my country's Internet medical industry from extensive development to strong. The age of regulation.

Essence International believes that the policy emphasizes that Internet consultation can only participate in "review scenarios", and at the same time emphasizes the traceability and strong management of Internet drug prescriptions, which generally meet compliance requirements and market expectations. In the long run, regulatory policies will help clarify the boundaries and responsibilities of Internet diagnosis and treatment. As relevant regulatory policies become increasingly transparent and standardized, medical service companies with sound compliance systems are expected to benefit.