From July 20, 2020, patients across the country can make follow-up appointments of 19 departments with more than 220 PUMCH doctors, using the "Online Diagnosis and Treatment" of PUMCH App. Patients could inquire hundreds of common diseases and chronic diseases online, consulting experts on diagnosis and treatment plan for difficult and severe cases.

▲Interface of Online diagnosis and treatment appointment of PUMCH App.

Being a ‘handheld doctor’ for remote follow-up patients

Associate Professor Cheng Zhongwei of the Department of Cardiology is the first batch of doctors to be online. Lately, he just ‘online’ saved a young life in time. 30-year-old Xiao Li is a patient from other provinces with diabetes mellitus and hypertension. He has been doing follow-up checks at PUMCH. Recently, his blood pressure fluctuates greatly, and his systolic blood pressure can sometimes reach 180mmHg at night. Hardly able to come to the hospital in person, he made an appointment for online diagnosis and treatment, and uploaded the local test results to the system. During the inquiry, Cheng Zhongwei found that the patient's troponin was slightly higher, and the risk of acute cardiovascular events increased. Cheng suggested that he should take a coronary angiography immediately. The radiography showed that Xiao Li was suffering from coronary heart disease.

Being a ‘family doctor’ for patients with limited mobility

Online diagnosis and treatment are not a stopgap for epidemic prevention and control. It furtherly brings convenience to patients with limited mobility such as post-surgical patients, elderly patients, and pregnant women.

For Associate Professor Qiao Lei from the Department of Neurology, most of his patients are elderly patients with Parkinson’s disease who need long-term medication and regular checks. With the help of family members, they can communicate with doctors through online diagnosis and treatment, and the doctor can also preliminarily evaluate some symptoms of the patient. Qiao Lei said that the patients are all satisfied with the online diagnosis and treatment and believe that it will be increasingly perfect in the future.

As a netizen put on the WeChat official account of PUMCH, ‘witnessing the fabulous speed that current difficulties in work resumption are solved, and difficulties of patients to receive medical services, I would like to praise the pioneering and enterprising development ideas of the hospital leaders! My PUMCH, my love!"

Peking Union Medical College Hospital has established online diagnosis and treatment for several departments.

▲The doctor is conducting a preliminary assessment of the patient's symptoms through video.

Photo by/Wang Lu; Xinhua News Agency, Zhang Yuwei