Patient-centric mobile health services accessed through smartphones in the top 100 Chinese public hospitals: a cross-sectional survey (Preprint)
Authors: Huang Xuan , Wang Ying , Zhang Jiajia , Jiang Ruo , Jiang Zhuang , Liu Yichen , Wang Hui 
Published: April 2021

BACKGROUND

Smartphone-based technology has been used to improve the delivery of healthcare services to the public in many countries.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to explore the application of patient-centric mobile health services accessed through smartphones in the top 100 Chinese public hospitals.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional survey on the patient-centric mobile health services including appointment making and registration, online medical guidance system and consultation, online prescription and drug delivery services, online test reports, online payment, chronic disease management, and health education services, in the public hospitals ranked in the top 100 by the China Hospital Science and Technology Evaluation Metrics of the Chinese Academy of Medical Science (2019) and the Hospital Reputation Rankings of the Hospital Management Institute of Fudan University (2019). The survey was performed by visiting the WeChat platform or mobile phone applications (apps) of these hospitals.

RESULTS

A total of 124 tertiary public hospitals included in the top 100 hospitals from the two ranking lists were selected for this study. A total of 98.39% (122/124) of the hospitals offered appointment making and registration services and also provided health education; 76.61% (95/124) of the hospitals supplied online test reports; and 58.06% (72/124) of the hospitals provided online consultations. A total of 49.19% (61/124) of the hospitals offered online prescriptions; among these hospitals, 88.52% (54/61) provided home delivery services by third-party delivery companies. A total of 45.97% (57/124) of the hospitals offered medical guidance system using AI technology. Only 6.45% (8/124) of the hospitals offered chronic disease management modules under monitoring and management by experienced medical teams. Of the included hospitals, 48.39% (60/124) had obtained a license to serve as an internet hospital (approved internet hospitals). Compared with the unapproved internet hospitals, more approved internet hospitals provided online consultations (29.69% vs 88.33%, r=43.741, p<0.001), test reports (62.5% vs 91.67%, r=14.703, p<0.001), and chronic disease management (1.56% vs 11.67%, r=5.238 p<0.05). The approved internet hospitals that provided more than six mobile health services were mostly concentrated in Shanghai and Guangdong, which is in line with the overall geographic distribution of the hospitals.

CONCLUSIONS

Patient-centric mobile health services offered by the top 100 Chinese public hospitals accessed through smartphones are mainly focused on online appointment making, registration, health education, and online test reports; the most popular features are online consultation, prescription, drug delivery, medical guidance, and early-stage chronic disease management. Compared with unapproved internet hospitals, the approved internet hospitals provided a great number of patient-centric mobile health services.