Laying out AI and health management strategies, Alibaba Health's 2017 financial report reveals innovative approaches for the second half of Internet health

In 2017, 'Internet plus healthcare' evolved from the previous '1.0' era, dominated by appointment registration and online consultation, to the '2.0' era, and now iteratively enters the '3.0' era, led by cutting-edge technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and medical consortia. In such an industry where wealth and intelligence converge, what kind of 'Internet plus healthcare' does Alibaba Health aspire to be? A glimpse can be gained from the financial year 2017 performance announcement released by Alibaba Health.

On the morning of May 17th, Alibaba Health released its latest financial year 2017 results announcement, revealing for the first time its business data in the medical and health service network sector: as of the financial year ending March 31st, 2017, Alibaba Health had provided over 6 million person-times of online medical and health consultation services.

According to the announcement, Ali Health has established an online health consultation service platform for practicing physicians and licensed pharmacists, which horizontally connects other business groups within the Alibaba Group. This allows users on Taobao Mobile, Tmall, Alipay, and Ali Health apps to conveniently and instantly receive health guidance from professional physicians through online health consultation services.

Meanwhile, relying on offline medical institutions such as grassroots medical facilities, county and municipal hospitals, and provincial hospitals, Alibaba Health is building an online diagnosis and treatment platform for Internet hospitals and establishing a tiered diagnosis and treatment system for the Internet. This not only facilitates cross-institutional and cross-regional remote medical services and medical professional exchanges, but also provides convenient medical conditions for patients in different regions.

Announcement data shows that in fiscal year 2017, product development expenditure amounted to RMB 109 million (in RMB, the same below), an increase of RMB 32.43 million from the previous year's RMB 76.15 million. The 42.6% increase was primarily due to an increase in R&D personnel. During the year, Alibaba Health hired more information technology engineers to expand its medical and health service network, build a health management platform, and develop a medical intelligent analysis engine.

Regarding how to enhance medical efficiency and service capabilities through technological means, Alibaba Health's intention to further explore extends beyond just online health consultation and tiered diagnosis and treatment platforms. In October 2016, Alibaba Health announced its collaboration with Alibaba Intelligence, as well as nearly 20 renowned smart health device and service manufacturers, including Sinocare, Haier Medical, Pocket Glucose, Yuyue, Roche, Biocon, and Omron, to launch the 'Smart Care Plan,' a comprehensive health management service platform targeting consumers. This marks Alibaba Health's first step towards becoming an intelligent personal health management platform.

The 'Smart Care Plan' refers to the use of health devices such as smart blood glucose meters, smart blood pressure monitors, smart body temperature monitors, and smart body fat scales to timely record and upload users' physical indicators, automatically generate health trend reports, and introduce remote guidance from doctors in a timely manner, providing users with personalized medical services and comprehensive health cycle management. Currently, the plan covers almost every member of the family, involving areas such as blood glucose and blood pressure management, weight loss, pregnancy and childbirth, and mother-and-child care.

The performance announcement released by Alibaba Health reveals more about its progress in the field of smart healthcare innovation: Alibaba Health has cooperated with external institutions such as governments, hospitals, and research institutions in various regions to 'build an artificial intelligence medical platform and core functional analysis engine', involving areas including medical data research platform, artificial intelligence medical platform, electronic medical records, remote imaging cloud platform, and intelligent engine for disease diagnosis.

Just the day before yesterday (May 16), the Health and Family Planning Commission of Zhejiang Province signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Alibaba. The two parties agreed to fully leverage the technological advantages of Alibaba's subsidiaries, including Ali Health and Alibaba Cloud, in areas such as mobile payment, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and Internet-based medical and health services. Combining this with the existing foundation of the Health and Family Planning Commission of Zhejiang Province's informatization construction, they will adopt an 'Internet plus' mindset to create an efficient, inclusive, and intelligently integrated healthcare ecosystem, jointly exploring new service models for 'Internet plus healthcare'.

'The Group will explore, together with more like-minded individuals, the establishment of personalized electronic health records for the public through the application of big data analysis, promoting integrated health services covering prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and health management throughout the entire life cycle. The Group will also continue to cooperate with hospitals, governments, and pharmaceutical companies across the country to develop more intelligent engines that help improve medical efficiency, and actively explore the technological extensions and product forms of smart healthcare,' the performance announcement stated.