SHANGHAI, March 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics, the leading international insurance think tank of the insurance industry, recently published its latest analysis report, Healthcare in Emerging Markets: Exploring the Protection Gaps (the "Report"). The Report said that internet technology has the potential to greatly improve health service efficiency, expand or scale up treatment delivery to millions of patients in emerging countries and ultimately improve the outcomes of patients. In addition, the Report focused on analysing the service mode and network of Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited ("Ping An Good Doctor", or the "Company"; Stock code: 01833.HK), China's largest online healthcare platform, and believed that the Internet medical enterprises represented by the Company are playing a positive role in improving the quality of China's medical services.
Established in 1973, the International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics, also known as The Geneva Association, is a non-profit organization funded by its members. It is comprised of chief executive officers (CEOs) from the world's top insurance and reinsurance companies, which identifies fundamental trends and strategic issues where insurance plays a substantial role or which influence the insurance sector. This is the first time that the association has released the analysis for the sector, and provided solutions for the sustainable development of global medical and healthcare services by analyzing the supply and demand structure and funding sources of current healthcare services in emerging markets.
The Report took Ping An Good Doctor as an example and provided a comprehensive introduction to the development of internet healthcare in China. Ping An Good Doctor has a nationwide network of healthcare service providers covering 3,100 hospitals, 1,100 health check-up centers, 500 dental clinics and 7,500 pharmacy outlets. It also provides users with one-stop services, including online consultation, hospital referral and appointment, inpatient arrangement, second opinion services and one-hour drug delivery. Ping An Good Doctor is expansing to Southeast Asia by establishing an international joint venture with Grab to meet the growing needs of the region.
"Emerging countries continue to suffer from gravely insufficient healthcare funding, which will reduce the healthcare quality and ultimately the health status of citizens," said Jad Ariss, the Secretary General of The International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics. In the last two decades, the share of total aggregate global expenditure on healthcare in GDP has increased from about 8% to almost 10%, driven by the accelerating cost of medical treatment and increasing customer demands. Digital health initiatives shall help emerging markets expand coverage and access, enhance medical services quality and reduce and optimize cost.
According to the Report, internet healthcare can significantly increase the scope of local medical services, and patients can access medical and health information more quickly and efficiently through their mobile phones. By adopting digital healthcare solutions, patients in China could enjoy both better access to and quality of services as well as more convenience. Providers are set to benefit primarily from efficiency and productivity gains. Payers can control fees effectively.
Full report reading and download link: https://www.genevaassociation.org/sites/default/files/research-topics-document-type/pdf_public/health_protection_gap_web.pdf
About Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited (01833.HK)
Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited is the leading one-stop healthcare ecosystem platform in China. By combining "mobile health + AI technology", the Company strives to provide every family with a family doctor, every person with an e-health profile and everyone with a healthcare management plan. Ping An Good Doctor has established a comprehensive, one-stop healthcare ecosystem covering family doctor services, consumer healthcare services, a health mall as well as health management and wellness interaction.
As of the end of December 2018, there were 265 million registered users and the Company's MAU reached 54.7 million. Ping An Good Doctor is today the largest mobile medical application in China in terms of user scale. Ping An Good Doctor employs more than a thousand medical personnel (Assistant Supervisor Level or above from Class III Grade A Hospitals) in its in-house medical team and contracts with 5,203 renowned external doctors. This in-house medical team, empowered by our proprietary AI technology, provides users with 24 x 7 online consultation services. In our offline partnership network, Ping An Good Doctor collaborates with over 3,000 hospitals (including more than 1,200 Class III Grade A hospitals) to provide services such as hospital referral, appointment and inpatient arrangements.
Ping An Good Doctor also partners with more than 2,000 healthcare institutions, including physical examination centers, dental clinics, cosmetic surgery institutions and more than 15,000 pharmacy outlets, to provide relevant health and wellness services to our users. By integrating our AI-empowered medical team, external doctors and offline network, Ping An Good Doctor has established a closed-loop healthcare ecosystem which enables our users to enjoy online consultations and online drug purchases, as well as online consultations and offline follow-up treatment, thereby providing convenient, high-quality and efficient family doctor services.
In April 2015, the App "Ping An Good Doctor" was officially launched. In May 2016, the Company completed an A round financing and raised US$500 million. In December 2017, the Company completed the pre-IPO financing from Softbank Vision Fund, during which it raised US$400 million. On 4 May 2018, Ping An Good Doctor became the No.1 listed internet health-tech company in the world when it joined the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, stock code 1833.HK. Our IPO cornerstone investors include Blackrock, Capital Group, GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Swiss Re and CP Group.
