Recent years have seen a continuous rise in demand for online medical consultations, a form of healthcare service that enables patients to contact a health professional online for diagnosis, prescription, and treatment. The surge in online consultations not only frees patients from the hurdles of attending doctor’s appointments in person, but also helps ease hospitals’ current shortages of staff and medical resources.

Digital healthcare services are not merely a simple add-on that complements traditional hospital services. They are, in fact, services themselves and higher professional standards need to be applied to them to safeguard reliability, privacy, and cybersecurity.

A series of rules co-released in recent years by the National Health Commission and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine have established a regulatory framework for online diagnosis.

Ready or not, the future of telemedicine has arrived, and is on its way to forming a comprehensive medical service network that integrates health education, consultation, and patient follow-up.

In the future, more effort needs to be invested into building a system of online patient records and making online consultations eligible for reimbursement under medical insurance schemes.