Articles

Chinese citizens are leaving their homes in search of the best care available, or care that they desperately need. Some 483,000 people travelled outbound from China for healthcare in 2015. These medical travellers spent USD6.3 billion on treatment and a further USD3.4 billion on travel and accommodation.

24-Feb-17 China has launched the “two-invoice” system in drug distribution on a trial basis, aiming to improve transparency in drug prices and eliminate excessive profit margins associated with multi-tier distribution models. The two-invoice system had been debated for over a decade. The system is expected to be fully implemented in public hospitals by the end of 2018. [image: Global Compliance News]

20-Feb-17 Three years ago Alibaba launched Ali Health to bolster the country’s health systems by streamlining processes with drug-tracking software. Other major companies began to develop mHealth solutions. Baidu created a chatbot that performs basic medical triage. But all of these companies are losing money. Ali Health alone lost USD30 bn in 2016. [image: China Daily]

20-Feb-17 Weill Cornell Medicine of the US has entered into an agreement with Tahoe Investment Group, part of a Chinese real estate company, to assist in the development of an international hospital in Shanghai. The proposed site is in the Yangpu District, an area with no international hospital, where the new facility will serve the local market and expatriates. [image: Weill Cornell Medicine]

 Insights

20-Feb-17 Raffles Medical Group is ramping up in China and Indochina as strong demand for quality healthcare offer attractive growth opportunities. It is also growing its portfolio of corporate clients with more multinational companies using its medical services outside of Singapore, including Japan, Vietnam and China. It also logged revenue of SGD474 mn, a 15% increase compared with a year ago. [image: Raffles Medical Group / Nikkei Asian Review]