Healthcare platform launches cross border information portal

Chunyu, China’s leading online healthcare platform, has launched a cross-border service as more Chinese medical tourists are heading to the US, Japan and South Korea for everything from heart transplants to Botox and rhinoplasty.

According to the China Aesthetics and Plastic Surgery Association, in 2014 56,000 Chinese visited Korea to have cosmetic surgery, marking a 350 % increase on 2013,

Launched in mid August, patients can consult direct with doctors overseas or book overseas surgery from their computers or mobile devices.

Most Chinese medical tourists go overseas for cancer treatment or cosmetic surgery The US is the top destination for cancer treatment while South Korea is favourite for cosmetic surgery.

While small medical tourism agencies began the market, they are being overtaken and often put out of business by the increasing number of national and cross border online comparison sites. The difference between these and the older style information sites is that the new ones are built for mobile devices, allow instant price comparisons, instant online access to doctors, and instant boking just as you can with a hotel.

Beijing-based Chunyu has already enabled more than 73 million users to consult Chinese doctors online since it was founded four years. It claims that as demand has grown, it now sees 160,000 consultations a day.

The new cross border platform aims to start slow, with a limited number of countries and clinics. The platform’s idea of a slow start is signing up 6000 doctors around the world who can be consulted with.

The new service will offer unique deals with providers in various countries including Thailand and Japan These deals include accommodation, flights and other collateral expenses, and vary from a health check-up in Korea in-vitro fertilisation in Thailand