Health analytics and education company Elsevier and Chinese multinational conglomerate Tencent announced the signing of a strategic agreement to accelerate the dissemination of global health information in China.

The two organizations will leverage their respective expertise and resources to help Chinese physicians gain quick access to Elsevier’s medical information and academic resources through digital platforms and services.

While China has made landmark improvements in its quality of healthcare and medical technologies in recent years, there are still challenges of an insufficient and unequal distribution of medical resources across the country’s broad geographic areas.

One of the challenges in some parts of rural China is the lack in medical resources – building technology-related knowledge amongst professionals and increasing high-quality content in the healthcare sector could help mitigate some of these issues. 

According to Elsevier, the collaboration between the two companies will facilitate the flow of medical information exchange and deliver evidence-based health information and clinical content to China's physicians. This will enhance the clinical decision-making and care efficiency of physicians.

THE LARGER TREND

Elsevier recently announced plans to acquire Dublin-based 3D4Medical, a startup specializing in digital medical education tools, according to a MobiHealth News report. In recent years, Tencent has continuously increased its investment in life sciences and has cooperated with many top international scientific journals. 

In January 2019, Tencent also signed a strategic collaboration agreement with German pharma giant Merck. The main focus of the collaboration is on increasing public disease awareness and providing more accessible healthcare services via digital platforms in China.

ON THE RECORD

“It takes 17 years for only 14 percent of new scientific discoveries to find their way into daily practice and we want to change that. We are pleased to collaborate with Tencent, leveraging our combined strengths in health science information and advanced digital technologies, to improve the professional knowledge of Chinese physicians. We look forward to a fruitful partnership that can better support China's physicians and the 'Healthy China' national objectives,” said Jan Herzhoff, Managing Director of Health Solutions, Asia Pacific, Elsevier in a statement.

Mr. Zhang Meng, Vice President, Tencent Life Science Practice, said: “'Tech for good' is an important part of Tencent's new mission and vision. Doctors are the guardians of people's health. Having uninterrupted access to the latest medical knowledge and keeping up with cutting-edge health advancement are the core needs of the doctor community.”