JDD Series: JD Health’s Intelligent Health Ecosystem

by Ella Kidron

JD Health is using advanced technology to build a fully-integrated 'internet + medical health' ecosystem centered on a digital and intelligent supply chain. At the JD Discovery (JDD) annual tech summit held on Nov. 25, Dr. Jon Liao, CSO of JD.com, mentioned in his keynote speechthat JD has reconstructed the medical supply chain to support the daily needs of users. 'Based on our internet healthcare platform, there are currently 80,000 doctors coming in contact with 120,000 consumers online each day,' said Liao.

JD's supply chain is equipped with medical resources that enable people in rural areas to have access to the same quality of health care as top cities. Yu Wang, general manager of product R&D at JD Health, further elaborated on this, telling Global Times online (环球网) in a recent interview: 'Behind [what the company does is a] strong and intelligent service and empowerment capabilities.' He added that, with JD.com's capabilities in cloud computing, big data, AI and IoT technology, JD Health is realizing intelligent health management of the user health lifecycle, from offline to online services, and from initial diagnosis to follow up visits and more.

Yu Wang of JD Health speaks at JDD

'We can see that every corner of the health field has the sound of numbers,' said Wang. He explained that the use of AI technology in biopharmaceuticals has already reached broad application, from molecular design to new biological target recognition, including target-based, phenotypic and multi-target drug discovery, drug use and biomarker recognition. 'AI plays an important role in drug target recognition and verification,' he added.

Announced at JDD, JD Health's digital pharmacy management software platform (药京通, literally means Pharmacy by JD's Track) is helping pharmaceutical retailers benefit more from such technological capabilities. Leveraging the system's AI algorithm on information, capital and logistics resources optimization as well as its channel integration abilities for procurement planning and order placement, drug stores can easily achieve zero-cost stocking, zero-inventory burden and intelligent procurement.

'Through technology empowerment, JD Health has realized deep omnichannel integration of online and offline, linking pharmaceutical supply and consumption, physical goods and services, pharmaceutical enterprises and users,' said Wang. The company can liaise with upstream and downstream suppliers, covering all pharmaceutical scenarios with value-added services.

On the software side, JD Health and JD IoT jointly released a smart speaker product called 'Family Doctor Guardian Star' (家医守护星), which also debuted at JDD. The speaker integrates JD Helath's telemedicine service program 'Family Doctor'. Family Doctor is based on an 'Internet + Healthcare' model and provides families with timely, consistent and comprehensive healthcare support. With the speaker, customers can use voice commands to call their designated general practitioner under the Family Doctor program and make face-to-face appointments. The speaker can also be connected with other health monitoring devices to make it easier for users to comprehensively manage their health.

As far as hardware is concerned, JD Health's intelligent health screening robot makes a wide range of medical information instantly available. The device uses multiple cameras, sensors and bioelectric modules to provide a preliminary analysis of people's health conditions and risk factors based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theories.

'In the future, JD Health will make better use of its technological advantages, improve the efficiency of doctor services, the accessibility of medical services, and provide integrated intelligent solutions for medical institutions and the medical and health industry,' said Wang.

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