Last week, Ping An Good Doctor, China’s one-stop healthcare ecosystem platform signed a strategic collaboration with Merck, a German multinational pharmaceutical, chemical and life sciences company to jointly explore integrated solutions to advance intelligent healthcare in China.

According to the joint media release, the collaboration will leverage Ping An Good Doctor's extensive experience in AI medical technology, insurance provision and online and offline healthcare resources and Merck's medical expertise, high-quality medicines and innovative solutions and to develop an integrated one-stop healthcare solution.

Ping An Good Doctor and Merck will also jointly explore how to break down the barrier between online and offline healthcare by means of innovative retail models connecting retail pharmacies, hospitals and primary healthcare in rural areas and by establishing an omni-channel retail system. 

THE LARGER TREND

Ping An Good Doctor has been quite active in establishing partnerships with local and foreign partners to leverage and expand their large network of active users. In September, the healthcare ecosystem platform entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Guangxi Committee, partnering with the People's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to build an Internet Healthcare platform in Guangxi.

The company also officially launched its ‘Private Doctor’ service in August this year and entered into partnerships with 29 companies, according to a MobiHealth news article. Earlier at the start of 2019, Merck signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Tencent to create intelligent digital healthcare services, thereby increasing public knowledge of diseases and improving patients’ understanding of disease symptoms and effective treatment options.

ON THE RECORD

“Ping An Good Doctor will take the advantages of the healthcare ecosystem platform and rely on its unique service model of ‘internet + artificial intelligence + more than 1,000 in-house physicians’ , combining Merck’s advanced technology and high-quality medicines to provide the majority of users on the platform with high-quality, personalized chronic disease management and healthcare services, which allows premium health resources to revolve around users and actively facilitates the precise implementation of the Healthy China Initiative,” said the representative of Ping An Good Doctor in a statement.

Rogier Janssens, Managing Director and General Manager of Merck's Biopharma Business in China said, “We are very excited to be working with Ping An Good Doctor to explore more patient-focused approaches, and integrated healthcare solutions to enhance health management. As part of our digitalization strategy, we seek out innovative solutions that will offer the highest possible benefits to patients, with the mission of transforming the lives of 40 million patients in China by 2025.”