22-Jun-16 Public hospitals in China are facing tougher scrutiny over prescriptions and tests as Beijing tries to find ways to cut costs and keep spending growth below 10%. A directive by the NHFPC aimed at controlling spending calls on its provincial and municipal branches to convey budget goals to public hospitals and establish a system for overseeing health care expenses. [image: South China Morning Post]

20-Jun-16 Initiatives to reduce medical blunders in public hospitals are in the pipeline as Hong Kong's Hospital Authority identified some 30 types of mistakes most commonly made. Chairman Professor John Leong Chi-yan said regular forums would be organised for junior doctors, targeting tools left inside patients’ bodies, the wrong dose of medicine, and operations on the wrong side of a patient. [image: South China Morning Post]

12-Jun-16 The introduction of a family doctor system in China is expected to provide huge opportunities for independent institutions offering medical and information management services. The government has unveiled guidelines to extend the family doctor system nationwide, expecting every household to have a contracted family doctor by 2020. [image: Xinhua]

08-Jun-16 A new global survey of patients and doctors by Philips shows that emerging economies are poised to adopt new technology, led by UAE and China. Australia comes in 4th and the US 6th. At the bottom of the report is Japan, where strict regulation and a lack of oversight have made the healthcare system less efficient. [image: UIG / Getty Images]

07-Jun-16 Korea is pushing ahead with a nationwide telemedicine platform despite strong opposition from doctors. Korea revised its Medicine Law in 2002 to allow only telemedicine consults between clinicians, preventing them from treating patients. In renewing the call for a national platform, officials said the service would be limited to “residents with specific medical, social or geographic conditions.” [image: mHealth Intelligence]