When the body is unwell, it has become the choice of more and more people to go online to inquire about the cause and conduct online consultation without leaving home. However, while Internet consultation is convenient for patients, it also brings many hidden dangers. On the other side of the network, is the doctor’s qualification true? Once there is a medical dispute, how to identify it? The reporter’s investigation found that many Internet medical platforms have incorrect or even false doctor information. Listen to the investigation report of Ren Mengyan, a reporter from Voice of China at the reception desk:
Recently, Ms. He from Zhejiang reported through the Voice of China news hotline at 400-800-0088 that she had a severe cough and consulted a senior expert with 25 years’ experience in the "Ask a doctor" section of Meituan to see a doctor and buy medicine — — Zhang Shukun, Chief Physician, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Qujing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Yunnan Province. After taking medicine on his advice, his condition worsened. When she was in a hurry, she couldn’t continue online consultation, so Ms. He called Qujing Chinese Medicine Hospital, only to find that Dr. Zhang Shukun was originally a massage department.
Ms. He: It’s a paid consultation. It’s only 9.9 yuan if I don’t have much money. After I clicked in, he prescribed medicine for me. After I took it for almost an hour or two, I felt uncomfortable because I coughed badly and my voice changed completely. After getting serious, I’m going to see this doctor. I want to ask him why I took medicine seriously, but the medical page is limited to that time, so I can only ask, and then I’ll call their hospital. The person in charge of their administration told me that the doctor’s photo is their doctor, and his specialty is not in the right direction. The doctor’s specialty is massage, but my medical record says respiratory medicine.
As can be seen from the screenshot provided by Ms. He to the reporter, during the consultation in the US delegation, the doctor’s profile is: Zhang Shukun, chief physician, worked in respiratory medicine for 25 years, specializing in the treatment of respiratory diseases, bronchitis, pneumonia, pulmonary heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, bronchial asthma, tuberculosis and other diseases with rich clinical experience.
At the official website of Qujing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Dr. Zhang Shukun’s profile is: the chief physician of Tuina Department, who is good at applying massage, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine and minimally invasive intervention to treat orthopedic diseases such as shoulder, neck, waist and legs, as well as various neurological and painful diseases.
Ms. He found Qujing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, and the hospital said that Dr. Zhang Shukun is a massage doctor. He is very busy at ordinary times and it is impossible to go to the respiratory department online. On the other hand, the US delegation said that it was Dr. Zhang himself who was right, and they all had information registered.
Ms. He: Are you sure that Dr. Zhang Shukun is a respiratory doctor?
Meituan Customer Service: Yes, we have verified it.
Ms. He: Are you sure it’s him?
Meituan Customer Service: Yes, it’s definitely him.
The reporter came to Qujing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and met Dr. Zhang Shukun. After repeated questioning, Dr. Zhang said that it was his wife who used his certificate to register in Meituan, and he "just cooperated" with the face recognition, but he didn’t know anything else: I didn’t know because I didn’t know the whole process. I really didn’t know, but I really didn’t know, because my certificate was Chinese medicine, right? Although I am engaged in massage, because my major is Chinese medicine, my practice certificate is Chinese medicine.
Zhang Shukun said that his wife is a physician who works in a local dimethyl hospital and is the deputy chief physician. Only after he asked his wife did he know that if he registered with the title of chief physician of Zhang Shukun, the medical treatment fee would be higher. "Good at respiratory diseases, etc." in the introduction was also filled in by the wife. How to register successfully if the scope of practice is different? Zhang Shukun explained: If I am admitted to the respiratory department, I will definitely feel strange. There is another problem. If it is normal, he should not let me go to the respiratory department because he is qualified as a Chinese medicine practitioner. She (my wife) just wants to find a platform to ask what to do. How to prevent it is all about popularizing common sense. I guess this is the problem, so may the staff ask her to modify the information?
Sun Wei, secretary of the Party Committee of Qujing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, told the reporter that there is no specialized respiratory medicine in their hospital at all, and the related majors are only pulmonary diseases. Moreover, as a top-three hospital, the professional classification is very standardized: just like our traditional Chinese medicine category, it has been divided into pulmonary diseases, spleen and stomach diseases is the usual digestive department, and pulmonary diseases is the respiratory medicine and cardiac encephalopathy in the usual sense. That’s how we divide it. Then the acupuncture department, massage department, rehabilitation department and Chinese medicine series came from such a plate. He wrote about respiratory diseases, such as bronchitis, pneumonia and so on, which are not described by Chinese medicine at all, but by western medicine.
After learning the whole story, Ms. He thought that both Meituan and Dr. Zhang Shukun were responsible, and she was even more afraid. What should she do if she didn’t go to the emergency room in time and the symptoms were more serious or even irreversible?
Actually, I don’t have any requirements. It’s been so long now, so I need an apology from the US Mission, and then the doctor will give me an apology.
The reporter’s investigation found that Ms. He’s experience was not a case. The reporter opened the Meituan APP, searched for a respiratory physician’s consultation, and then systematically arranged a top three hospital — — A doctor surnamed Li in Kaifeng Central Hospital was admitted to the hospital. The page introduced that he was an attending physician with 12 years’ experience in respiratory medicine. After the reporter inquired about official website in Kaifeng Central Hospital, the doctor was a nephrologist. Then the reporter called Kaifeng Central Hospital, and the duty officer said that the doctor was admitted online, which had nothing to do with the hospital and needed to find a network platform.
Kaifeng Central Hospital: His senior title is Nephrology.
Reporter: You can also see the respiratory department, right?
Kaifeng Central Hospital: You should communicate with Meituan. This is not the platform of our hospital.
Meituan customer service told reporters that they had verified that Dr. Li was a physician, so there was no problem writing about respiratory physicians.
The doctors on our platform are all registered medical practitioners in National Health Commission, and they meet the requirements of the Internet diagnosis and treatment management method and the professional rules of the Physician Law. This is also a senior doctor with many years of working experience in a 3A hospital, so please rest assured that the doctor is professional. There is no problem with the audit of the entire medical qualification team of Meituan. On this side, he wrote internal medicine at that time, so this was certified by the respiratory department.
Reporter: If you want to say that about internal medicine, why do hospitals have so many departments?
Meituan: In this case, we also fed back the questions you gave back to the platform, and the Internet hospital gave such a reply.
As of press time, no further reply has been received.
The reporter searched the Internet complaint platform for black cat complaints and found that many Internet medical apps have similar problems of mislabeling of departments and mislabeling of hospitals. Mr. Wu, a patient, made a consultation with an oncologist in the oncology department through Baidu Health. The doctor who showed up was from the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University, and made an inquiry in official website by name. Mr. Wu found that the other person was an oncologist: I consulted on the Internet, and I asked about oncology. He has a label in oncology, and people we consult will think that he is a doctor in oncology. I found the doctor. He is in the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University, and he is a doctor in radiotherapy.
The Baidu Health page that Mr. Wu sent to reporters shows that this doctor is an attending physician in oncology, but his personal introduction also says that he is an attending physician in oncology radiotherapy. The practicing certificate of radiotherapy doctors is different from that of internal medicine. Mr. Wu also questioned the platform. Which department is the doctor? Is it professional?
It didn’t reply to me on the platform. He said that doctors can also see internal medicine qualifications. He (the doctor) gave me advice and didn’t make any diagnosis, or (let me) go offline to see a doctor according to my own needs. Online consultation does have many disadvantages.
It is understood that the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University has not cooperated with the third-party Internet medical platform.
In JD Health, the reporter found that some hospitals had labeling errors. For example, Baoding Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital is labeled as a top three hospital. In fact, the top three hospital is Baoding No.1 Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.
Hospital: We are Baoding No.1 Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Reporter: Isn’t it the same as Baoding Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital?
Hospital: Not one. We are the First Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Reporter: Which one is the top three?
Hospital: Yes, we are Baoding No.1 Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
There are not only problems in the consultation process, but also loopholes in the prescription process. The reporter found that when a company named "Liangjianhao Medicine Network" sells antidepressant drugs such as Mirtazapine and Prozac, other platforms need to upload prescription photos for review, and the reporter uploads different styles of landscape photos many times. Every time, a "Dr. Chen Hong from Liangjianhao Medical Internet Hospital" will jump out for consultation. According to the introduction, she is frequently-occurring in pediatrics, andrology, diagnosis and treatment of common diseases, and mental illness. According to the landscape photos uploaded by the reporter, Dr. Chen instantly issued an electronic prescription and entered the pharmacist review stage. Subsequently, the reporter cancelled the order and tried to upload the landscape photos many times at different times, and found that the doctor from Chen Hong wrote the prescription instantly every time. Although the pharmacists of Liangjian Platform will call the reporters to ask for a supplementary prescription before prescribing medicine, the Chen Hong doctor can always look at the scenery and "prescribe medicine every second" for the first time.
Whether it is consultation or prescription, the development of Internet diagnosis and treatment is for the convenience of patients, provided that it is safe and effective. If the Internet medical platform cannot be strictly examined from personnel qualification to prescription process, it may have laid a lot of hidden dangers.
