10-Apr-16 China's online pharmacy business has grown from virtually nothing five years ago to more than RMB7 bn (USD1.1 bn) in 2014, accounting for 3% of all retail medicine sales. But the boom is only a preview of explosive growth to come, provided authorities allow online pharmacies to sell prescription drugs. So far online pharmacy sales consist mostly of OTC medicine. [image: Asia Pacific Daily News]

12-Apr-16 AstraZeneca and Beijing-based mobile healthcare consultation application Chunyu Doctor have formed a partnership to offer patients with management of chronic diseases. Chunyu said it currently connects with more than 90 million users and about 400,000 physicians across the country. [image: Chunyu Yisheng]

15-Apr-16 Vietnam's Municipal Department of Health said that the overcrowding in public hospitals is seen not only in inpatient wards but also with outpatients. In 2015, the number of outpatients in public hospitals was 34 mn, accounting for 23% of the country’s outpatients. One solution proposed is to combine state and private hospital services. [image: Tuoi Tre News]

15-Apr-16 The US is enjoying a record number of tourists from China and some have come for medical treatments they cannot get at home. "This is a relatively new thing in the last two years that many people from China have been coming to the US for medical care. Prior to that, there were very small numbers," said Spencer Koerner, medical director at Cedars-Sinai. [image: Li Ming and Cai Meng / China Daily]

14-Apr-16 The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has signed a SAR200 mn (USD53 mn) agreement to provide medical care for poor rural people in India, funding 15 mobile health clinics. The money is part of a SAR1 bn fund which will also deploy 60 mobile clinics in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Yemen, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. [image: Arab News]