New partnership to improve chronic disease management

Belgium-based multinational biopharmaceutical company UCB and Chinese digital healthcare provider Ali Health announced on Thursday that they will enter a strategic partnership to explore an innovative service model for the intelligent management of chronic diseases.

This partnership is aimed at leveraging each party's respective strengths to provide smart, one-stop and closed-loop online services for patients with chronic diseases, according to the announcement made during the ongoing 22nd China International Industry Fair (CIIF) in Shanghai.

As the first step of the strategic agreement, an "Epilepsy Care on Alipay" account was initiated on the Alipay app to serve epilepsy patients and provide cloud-based diagnosis, treatment and the ability to purchase medication.

From diagnosis to usage of medication, the smart platform will guide patients through each step of the process and provide them with authoritative consultation services.

For example, during the initial diagnosis stage, patients can quickly find an appropriate doctor for online consultation or register with public hospitals for offline consultations. During the medication use phase, the platform will remind patients to take their medication on time and adhere to standard treatment practices. It will also provide answers to "frequently asked questions" that would allow patients to learn more about diseases.

Wu Xin, general manager of UCB China, said that the platform was designed to address key needs such as disease education, fast and accurate diagnosis and long-term disease management for epilepsy patients, who number around 10 million in China.

"Patient experience improvement is one of our key corporate philosophies and it has driven us to join hands with Ali Health to make such service easily accessible to the patient community," he said.

Caption: Belgium-based multinational biopharmaceutical company UCB and Chinese digital healthcare provider Ali Health announce a strategic partnership to explore intelligent management of chronic diseases on Thursday.