Topic identification and content analysis of internet medical policies and regulations

The Rise of “Internet + Healthcare” in China

The “Internet +” action plan was first introduced in China’s 2015 Government Work Report, with the aim of integrating the internet into fields such as healthcare, education, and finance to foster the growth of emerging industries. In recent years, “Internet + Healthcare” has rapidly developed as an innovative medical service using the internet as a platform. By leveraging cloud computing and big data technologies, it has deeply integrated with traditional medical services, continuously expanding service offerings and gradually widening its reach, demonstrating significant success.

According to the 2023 China Digital Health Market Data Report, China’s internet healthcare market is projected to reach 385.4 billion RMB, marking a 24.25% year-on-year growth. The robust growth of “Internet Plus Healthcare” has garnered government attention, with a series of supportive policies, such as the 2018 State Council’s Guidelines for Promoting the Development of “Internet Plus Healthcare”, providing a favorable policy environment for its advancement.

Analyzing the Content of Internet Medical Policies

Understanding the key focus of internet medical policies (including legal documents or broader policy pronouncements) is crucial for guiding its direction, fostering its robust development, and advancing the Healthy China initiative. From a policy perspective, in-depth comprehension of the central topics of internet healthcare policies provides insight into the critical elements of its development, aiding in promoting internet healthcare work in China and warranting widespread attention and discussion.

This study examines the policies issued by central and local Chinese authorities to explore the orientation and trends of the core topics of policies, understanding the inherent patterns of internet healthcare policy development. This serves as a reference to improve the policy framework and ultimately support the future growth of China’s “internet healthcare”.

Methodology: Applying the BERTopic Model to Internet Medical Policies

Many scholars have conducted research on internet healthcare policies using methods such as content analysis and bibliometrics. However, these approaches provide a superficial level of analysis and do not account for semantic relationships between words. By automatically extracting relevant topics from policy texts and summarizing key content, this study can effectively consider semantic relationships between words, understand the deep meanings of topics in texts, and explore the development direction and regulatory approaches of internet healthcare more deeply, systematically analyzing the formulation and implementation of policies.

The BERTopic model, a deep learning-based topic modeling approach, was employed to extract, mine, and cluster topics from internet healthcare policy texts. The research process consisted of the following steps:

1. Collecting all relevant central and local policy documents from various policy document repositories.
2. Preprocessing the study samples.
3. Training the BERTopic model and manually merging similar topics to finalize the core topics of policy texts, conducting in-depth analysis of the specific orientations within each topic.
4. Revealing the evolution trends of core topics in policy texts based on the proportion and quantity of each topic over the years.

Key Findings from the Topic Modeling Analysis

The analysis of 436 internet medical policy texts, using the BERTopic model, identified a total of 27 topics, which were grouped into five thematic clusters:

1. Regulation of Internet Medical Services: This cluster focuses on the safety, reliability, and rationality of internet healthcare practices, as well as the development and improvement of relevant standards and norms.

2. Internet-based Traditional Chinese Medicine Eldercare and Child Healthcare: This cluster focuses on advancing the efficient use of internet healthcare platforms to deliver eldercare, child health services, and more, thereby enhancing service capabilities and coverage.

3. Internet Medical Security Assurance: This cluster focuses on ensuring the security, integrity, and availability of patient information while clarifying standards for data collection, storage, transmission, and processing.

4. Internet Medical Health Education and Popularization of Science: This cluster focuses on effectively using internet technology and platforms to promote the dissemination of medical knowledge and health education, thereby enhancing the public’s health literacy and understanding of medical information.

5. Internet-based Guidance for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Infectious Diseases: This cluster focuses on leveraging internet technology to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of infectious disease prevention efforts while also providing patients with comprehensive and personalized rehabilitation guidance.

The analysis of these thematic clusters provides valuable insights into the orientation and trends of internet healthcare policies in China, highlighting areas of focus, room for improvement, and future policy directions.

Implications and Recommendations

The findings from this comprehensive analysis of internet healthcare policies in China offer several implications and recommendations:

1. Strengthening Regulatory Frameworks: While policies have focused on regulating internet healthcare services, there is still room for improvement in terms of policy integrity, consideration of multiple user types, and implementation effectiveness. Continuous efforts are needed to optimize the policy framework and ensure the protection of patients’ health and legal rights.

2. Enhancing Accessibility and Usability: Future policies should not only focus on technological advancement but also address the needs and challenges of vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and children, by offering solutions and clear guidelines to enhance the usability and applicability of internet healthcare services.

3. Promoting Cross-Sector Collaboration: Policies should encourage and guide relevant institutions and individuals, including healthcare, education, and technology sectors, to actively participate in internet healthcare education and promotion, driving its progress to a higher level.

4. Strengthening Data Security and Privacy Protection: Policies should continue to strengthen the standardization of data collection, storage, transmission, and processing, while also educating patients on personal information safety to ensure proper use and protection of patient privacy.

5. Integrating Emerging Technologies: As the internet healthcare landscape evolves, policies should consider emerging risks and technologies, such as mobile devices, drones, the Internet of Things, and the growing interdependencies of critical infrastructure, to ensure comprehensive coverage and adaptability.

By addressing these key areas, the internet healthcare policy framework in China can be further optimized to promote the comprehensive, standardized, and sustainable development of internet-based medical services, ultimately benefiting the health and well-being of the public.