111, Inc. (NASDAQ: YI) ("111" or the "Company"), a leading integrated online and offline healthcare platform in China, announced today that it has started to offer free online consultation service to Chinese nationals living and working abroad through its Internet hospital since March 17. This expands the Company's pioneering efforts to combat the outbreak, by providing including free online consultations to the large numbers of Chinese living, working, or visiting overseas.
Equipped with a professional medical team of more than 2,000 doctors, 111's platform is capable of providing real-time online consultation services to Chinese nationals living and working abroad, as well as potentially to the more than 60 million overseas Chinese, mostly residing in Southeast Asia. The newly launched Chinese-language service covers 11 categories including general outpatient, pediatrics, internal medicine and gynecology and obstetrics. In the meantime, 111 has also placed a portal to the service at a prominent position on its app homepage with a clear reminder, so that users of the app can easily locate and access the service.
As a major cloud-based healthcare service provider and leading Internet healthcare platform in China's fight against the virus, 111 has provided free online consultation service through its Internet hospital since a national emergency was declared against the outbreak of COVID-19 on January 23. The service has served as an important complement to offline medical resources and effectively helps to minimize the risk of hospital-acquired contagion.
During the outbreak, the number of new registered users on 111's App has increased over fivefold and the number of new patients with chronic diseases has increased more than threefold. With the assistance of artificial intelligence ("AI") technology, individual doctors on 111's platform have provided as many as 300 consultations per day.
Mr. Pengcheng Zhu, Co-COO of 111, commented, "Online medical service is emerging as the 'second battlefield' in China's efforts on prevention and control of the virus. By leveraging our cloud capabilities, 111 will continue to help Chinese people around the world combat the outbreak with our cloud-based free online consultation service."
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