Julien Legrand

Chinese Digital Healthcare: The Chinese healthcare system is facing huge challenges with, on one hand, a greying population, multiplying chronic diseases and poor health literacy and, on the other hand, too few qualified doctors working in overcrowded top tier hospitals while lower tier ones are deserted. eHealth solutions are today multiplying to address the very obvious needs for higher quality of care and the associated market was recently estimated to reach USD 110 million in 2020 by BCG. After exploring how patients’ experience was improved through digitalisation, and how BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi) were entering the market, after analysing Chinese doctors’ main problems and investigating the reasons why China’s eHealth startup WeDoctor had turned into a unicorn, I conclude this 5 articles series with a global overview of the reasons why the Chinese healthcare ecosystem indeed needs to evolve, how digital can help in the process and the…

 WeDoctor/Weiyi Group Chinese eHealth: The Chinese healthcare system is facing huge challenges with, on one hand, a greying population, multiplying chronic diseases and poor health literacy and, on the other hand, too few qualified doctors working in overcrowded top tier hospitals while lower tier ones are deserted. eHealth solutions are today multiplying to address the very obvious needs for higher quality of care and the associated market was recently estimated to reach USD 110 million in 2020 by BCG. After examining the eHealth strategy of the “BATX”, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi, the Chinese equivalent of the American GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple), I wanted to analyse the investment distribution pattern among all eHealth start-ups. The last two years have been rich in investments, with a total of ~ USD 2 billion poured into eHealth solutions in China. Many investments are highly interesting to analyse but one start-up attracts way…

Chinese Healthcare & BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi): The Chinese healthcare system is facing huge challenges with, on one hand, a greying population, multiplying chronic diseases and poor health literacy and, on the other hand, too few qualified doctors working in overcrowded top tier hospitals while lower tier ones are deserted. eHealth solutions are today multiplying to address the very obvious needs for higher quality of care and the associated market was recently estimated to reach USD 110 million in 2020 by BCG. After examining how Chinese companies were improving patients’ experience, I further explore the strategies deployed by the “BATX”, the Chinese equivalent of the American GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon): Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi. They all pursue an active strategy to promote and develop tomorrow’s healthcare system in China, though with very different visions and means. Here is a short analysis: Baidu’s main strategy has been to…

Digital Healthcare Patient Experience: The Chinese healthcare system is facing huge challenges with, on one side, a greying population, multiplying chronic diseases and poor health literacy and, on the other side, too few qualified doctors working in overcrowded top tier hospitals, lower tier ones being deserted. Digital Healthcare solutions are today multiplying to address the very obvious needs for higher quality of care and the associated market was recently estimated to reach USD 110 million in 2020 by BCG. In this first article, part of a series analysing the digitalisation of the Chinese healthcare system, I explore the patient experience and the way Chinese start-ups are disrupting it, building China’s next generation of healthcare. By default, the user is healthy. He can, however, still be interested in purchasing health-related products and services, ranging from pure wellness to soft healthcare. Most likely, those persons want to improve the way they live…