On the second floor of a new office building in downtown Beijing, rows of people with headphones sit five abreast, typing furiously. Dressed in jeans and T-shirts, they could easily be mistaken for office clerks or call-center workers—except for the white coats over the backs of their chairs and signs hanging overhead that read: “Internal Medicine,” “Pediatrics,” “Gynecology,” “Obstetrics.”
In one corner of this sprawling office sits Liu Sainan, a 47-year-old neurologist. In March, after 16 years at a top Beijing hospital, she joined Shanghai-based Ping An Healthcare & Technology Co., which runs the Ping An Good Doctor app. These days she treats patients via online messaging through the app, juggling as many as 10 people at once. Patients can also send pictures of symptoms, such as bruises, or their test results.