Official stresses responsibility for online hospitals

BEIJING -- Online hospitals must anchor their services to brick-and-mortar hospitals to ensure service providers bear accountability, an official with the National Health Commission has said.

"Supervision of online and offline services should be combined to ensure service quality and safety," said Jiao Yahui, an official in charge of health policies and management, at a briefing on April 26.

The commission will urge nternet enterprises to bear accountability for medical incidents, she said.

China is working on regulations to define online hospitals and to clarify their registration process.

To make supervision more transparent, China will accelerate authentication of digital identification for doctors to track their diagnosis and treatment process, Jiao said.