China News Service, Beijing, November 5 (Reporter Zhao Fangyuan) The market size of China's health examination industry is continuing to expand. According to data from China Research Institute Puhua, the market size of China's physical examination industry will grow from 207.4 billion yuan in 2020 to 292.2 billion yuan in 2024, and the market size is expected to reach 800 billion yuan in 2030. The current market presents a pattern of "public leadership, private catch-up": public hospital physical examination departments account for about 70% of the market share, private institutions' market share has increased to about 20%, and Internet platforms have begun to enter this field with a complementary role.
However, behind the expansion of scale, "just inspect and ignore" is still a long-standing shortcoming of the industry. A considerable proportion of sub-health problems do not require doctor's intervention, but require continuous management, and management is precisely the most difficult part.
Against this background, the physical examination industry is extending from "single examination" to "continuous health management". Some leading institutions have begun to centralize physical examinations and dental, medical aesthetics, otolaryngology and other specialized services, and are exploring post-examination services with the help of Internet hospitals, AI assistance and supply chain capabilities. However, multi-business integration is still an attempt by a few institutions and has not yet become a common model in the industry. Recently, when the reporter visited the Jingdong Health Comprehensive Clinic (Yizhuang Campus), he saw that the clinic has a centralized layout of physical examination, dental, medical aesthetics, and traditional Chinese medicine bone setting.
When multiple business types are concentrated in one outpatient clinic, whether it can form a real service synergy or whether it will just remain a "physical platter" is the first question that must be answered in this type of model. According to Huang Guojun, vice president of JD Health and general manager of consumer medical business, the key to judging whether it is a platter or true collaboration lies in whether there is "data flow" and "joint responsibilities" between departments.
"In the platter mode, if abnormal blood sugar is detected, the report will be changed, and other departments will not know. In the collaborative mode, the physical examination report should become an action instruction. For example, if periodontal risk is found, the system will go directly to the dental clinic; if the lumbar curvature is abnormal, the image will be directly transmitted to the orthopedist."
From the perspective of the industry, the value of the "all-in-one" model is that customers can complete multiple inspections and services at one time in a relatively concentrated space and time. However, big but comprehensive and small but beautiful are the choices of different institutions. The key to whether multiple business formats can be established is not the number of departments, but whether the data, responsibilities and processes can be truly connected.
In response to the common pain point of "stopping after examination" in the industry, Wu Daling, head of the physical examination business of JD Health Consumer Medical Business Department, said that problems such as incomprehensible physical examination reports, independent projects in each department, obscure medical terms, and ungraded positive indicators have always been problems that have troubled the examinees. Post-examination management needs to extend from "examination" to "management" and from "treatment" to "nurturing", but whether it can be truly implemented still depends on multiple factors such as medical resource connection, service standardization and customer compliance. From the perspective of the industry, post-examination management capabilities are becoming the key to differentiated competition among medical examination institutions.
While the industry is expanding, standardized development is still a common prerequisite. Huang Guojun said that when society reaches a certain stage of development, it is necessary to adhere to the right path and adhere to the rules. It is a trend for the medical industry to become more and more standardized. As the life expectancy of residents continues to increase, there is still a lot of room for markets such as physical examination and medical beauty; industry chaos will squeeze the development space. For physical examination institutions, on the one hand, they must better spread health concepts, and on the other hand, they must use their own efforts to promote more standardized industry.
From the perspective of industry trends, physical examination centers are extending from a single examination scenario to "examination-interpretation-intervention-management". Multi-business integration, AI assistance and post-examination services have become new competition dimensions. But these capabilities ultimately return to the essence of medical care: whether data are connected, responsibilities are clear, and services are standardized. Only by crossing the "physical platter" stage can the integration of multiple business formats be truly transformed into health management value.
