Status and Development of Private Internet Hospitals: Telemedicine Practice of China since COVID-19 Epidemic

Internet hospitals are a telemedicine business model as an important way to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of healthcare services globally. Internet hospitals can be divided into public and private ones. The latter tend to be larger due to the integration of physicians from different regions and hospitals. However, few studies have explored the operations and advantages of private Internet hospitals. Thus, this study is carried out to explore the role of private Internet hospitals in public health emergencies and their use characteristics based on consultation data during the Covid-19 epidemic from China’s largest telemedicine platform, Good Doctor Online. Specifically, we analyze the distribution of diseases for online consultations, doctor-patient interactions, and user online visit conversion rates, and discuss the results to provide a solid experience for developing telemedicine programs in other countries with insufficient health resources and inadequate healthcare systems.