Alibaba Health Information Technology has entered into a three year contract with Shanghai Kingsoft Winning Software (Winningsoft) to develop electronic prescriptions and payments.
Winningsoft specialises in cloud-based medical services and software for the healthcare industry. Working with the Alibaba division, it will combine features such as drug tracking and medical insurance risk control with financial transactions, creating a built-in payment platform for patients.
In a statement posted to the stock exchange on Tuesday, the two companies said that they plan to “work together towards the creation of an integrated online and offline healthcare services business and ecosystem,” in order to “improve their market position and create greater commercial value,” including in field of medical payments.
The partnership will also look to create “cloud” hospitals and services that allow doctors to work across multiple locations, with the supporting systems hosted on Alibaba Cloud.
Despite the potential of the cloud to link up disjointed healthcare plans for patients, international uptake of the technology has been slow, owing to the sensitive nature of patient data and fears over security breaches. As digital payments and encrypted data storage become the norm, however, this looks set to change.
Whitepapers
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