Industry leaders from Jiahui Health, NEJM Catalyst, and Harvard Business School discuss the future of healthcare in China

Healthcare industry leaders from Jiahui Health, NEJM Catalyst, and Harvard Business School shared international perspectives on Chinese healthcare reform at an event in Caohejing Technology Park, Shanghai. The theme of the symposium was China’s Changing Health Care: Global Lessons at Scale.

The expert panel agreed that China’s enormous population and surging economy present it with significant healthcare challenges, as well as huge opportunities to be a global model for rethinking care delivery. Discussions ranged across the roles of regulation, innovation, and technology in reshaping China’s healthcare system.

The event was co-organized by Jiahui Health and NEJM Catalyst – associated with The New England Journal of Medicine. Panelists included representatives of the organizers, as well as Harvard Business School, Kaiser Permanente, and Providence St. Joseph Health, among others. 

The event included some notable highlights for Jiahui Health:

– Dr. David J. Cook, Chief Clinical Officer of Jiahui Health, delivered the keynote speech. “Healthcare delivery in China is undergoing enormous change,” said Cook. “No country in human history has advanced so far, so fast. The directions decided today will influence the health of the world’s larg est population and offer lessons globally.”


Dr. David J. Cook, Chief Clinical Officer of Jiahui Health

On the need for innovation, Dr. Cook commented: “In China, about 95% of healthcare is delivered in the government system. Fundamentally, here and elsewhere, governmental healthcare systems carry the weight of bureaucracy but get little benefit from the refining and evolutionary forces of competition.”

Panelists agreed that more competition was required to boost innovation, while acknowledging that regulation could be used to foster competition by promoting transparency on patient outcomes and building sound quality management systems. Jiahui Health offers such a model, being approved by China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission and also compliant with international standards; it is the first integrated healthcare ecosystem of its kind in China.

– Ge Feng, Jiahui Health’s CEO, joined the panel to discuss technology’s role in reshaping China’s healthcare delivery. The session explored how digital solutions – such as apps, telehealth, and artificial intelligence – can close the gap between patients and providers and expand provision.


(Left to right): John Yu, Founder and CEO of Meridian Medical Network Corp; Ge Feng, CEO of Jiahui Health; Thomas H. Lee, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health

“In China, there is a strong need for AI and telehealth because of urgent capacity issues; we simply don’t have enough doctors to meet the rising demands of an ageing population of 1.4 billion. I believe technology can help circumvent that reality.” 

Jiahui Health is already leveraging the WeChat ecosystem with the aim of making healthcare services part of normal daily life. Its digital platform allows patients to access a range of services at their convenience and WeChat’s social dynamic means they can easily talk about and share their experience online. 


Ge Feng, CEO of Jiahui Health

“This is the future of what I call ‘relationship healthcare’,” said Ge. “Jiahui Health is very proud and lucky to be part of this massive transformation, but at the end of the day, it’s about people. It doesn’t matter if you’re American or Chinese; we all want great healthcare. That’s what Jiahui Health is all about: care, quality, and impact.”