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Previously submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research (no longer under consideration since Sep 25, 2020)

Date Submitted: Aug 28, 2020
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 27, 2020 - Oct 22, 2020
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Emerging and Future Challenges for Hospital-based Internet Medical Care Delivery amidst COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Descriptive analysis

  • Le Yang; 
  • Yi Yang; 
  • Jun Yin; 
  • Siying Wu; 
  • Yeying Wen; 
  • Jieyu Wu; 
  • Tinggui Wang; 
  • Yi Sun; 
  • Xingyan Xu; 
  • Yingying Cai; 
  • Jianhui Guo; 
  • Yawen Lin; 
  • Yuduan Hu; 
  • Mingjun Chen; 
  • Xiaoxu Xie

ABSTRACT

Background:

The hospital-based Internet medical care is an online approach mode to provide health services directly from hospitals to patients, which develops rapidly in China. However, this mode is confronting new challenges and opportunities due to the prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Objective:

This study aimed to try to reflect the changing tendency of hospital-based Internet medical care in China by focusing on a large regional hospital.

Methods:

We employed The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University as the subject of this study, which ranked the 50th in the top 100 medical centers in China. Data on hospital-based Internet medical care from November 2019 to April 2020 were collected, including the volume of online appointments, online consultations, and offline consultations. And we collected the data of COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths from January 2020 to June 2020 to correspond to the data of hospital services for research.

Results:

632225 online appointments and 1207235 offline consultations were analyzed in hospital from November 19 to April 20. We calculated the online appointment rate, which changed in each department significantly with an upward tendency in March and April after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to April, the department with the largest increase in online appointment rate was Nursing, and with the least increase was Rheumatology. Since the end of February, a total of 12 departments started free online consultation. Online consultations mainly focused on Otolaryngology, Endocrinology, Obstetrics, and Gynecology.

Conclusions:

During the epidemic, though we still face various issues such as doctor scarcity and unavailability of health insurance coverage, hospital-based Internet medical care is expanding in China. The government and hospitals are creating a practical, shared medical and health information platform to combat the crisis. China’s hospital-based Internet medical care is meeting the new situation and much remains to be done.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Yang L, Yang Y, Yin J, Wu S, Wen Y, Wu J, Wang T, Sun Y, Xu X, Cai Y, Guo J, Lin Y, Hu Y, Chen M, Xie X

Emerging and Future Challenges for Hospital-based Internet Medical Care Delivery amidst COVID-19 Pandemic in China: Descriptive analysis

JMIR Preprints. 28/08/2020:23923

DOI: 10.2196/preprints.23923

URL: https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/23923

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