Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    SHENZHEN’S health commission launched a health-care website and an app Friday, allowing hospital-goers to complete every step in seeking medical care on their mobile phone, except one: meeting the doctor.

    “With this app or website, patients can make appointments, get access to all their medical records, use online hospitals, and make payments,” said Lin Denan, director of Shenzhen’s health-care information center, an organ of the health commission. “In another word, hospital-goers can complete any step before and after seeing a doctor and receiving treatment on their mobile phone.”

    The increasing use of smartphones has spawned a large number of health-care apps that try to make the process of seeking health care easier. To offer residents a one-stop service, the city’s health commission developed its own app to meet the demand.

    Supported by the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen (Shenzhen Cloud Computing Center), the app and the website can ensure the safety of their patients’ data, Lin said.

    The app, which includes every doctor at every Shenzhen public hospital and community clinic, as well as some private hospitals and clinics, can help users find the doctors and hospital departments that best suit their needs, Sun Jing, deputy director of the information center, told reporters.

    “Statistics show that 20 to 30 percent of hospital-goers choose the wrong department or doctor when registering,” Sun said. “The app has an intelligent guide function, which is backed by big data and artificial intelligence technologies, that helps users make the right decision.”

    In addition to functions such as mobile payment and reminder services, the app facilitates the delivery of medicine to the patient’s home.