Research Progress of Internet Hospital Diagnosis and Treatment Service

Abstract

This study systematically reviews the current development, quality evaluation methods, and influencing factors of internet hospitals, aiming to provide a reference for improving internet diagnosis and treatment services and promoting the high-quality development of internet hospitals. Since 2014, China’s internet hospitals have gone through exploratory, standardization, and rapid development phases. As of September 2025, the national total reached 3756, with an annual diagnosis and treatment volume exceeding 100 million visits. Although technological applications continue to innovate, problems such as insufficient standardization, poor service continuity, medical safety hazards, difficulties in quality supervision, and obvious regional disparities have become increasingly prominent. Regarding quality evaluation, existing methods include subjective evaluations such as patient satisfaction surveys and the SERVQUAL scale, as well as objective evaluations such as guideline-based quality assessment and the standardized patient method (regarded as the “gold standard” for objective evaluation). Research indicates that diagnosis and treatment quality is comprehensively influenced by multi-level factors, including physicians’ professional competence, patients’ basic characteristics, platform technology, hospital management, and the policy environment. Moving forward, it is necessary to establish a scientific quality evaluation and supervision system, improve diagnosis and treatment norms and intelligent support, strengthen talent cultivation and platform optimization, innovate chronic disease management models and promote the downward allocation of resources, and refine standards and payment policies, thereby driving the sustained and healthy development of internet hospitals in the direction of intelligence, integration and standardization.