Online Consultation With a Chinese Hospital Before You Travel (2026)

You can get a Chinese hospital's opinion before you travel, but as a first-time patient you cannot get an internet-hospital diagnosis or a prescription online. Unless a doctor treating you at a physical hospital invites the consultation through an internet hospital, China's rules allow online diagnosis and prescribing only as follow-ups (复诊) for common and chronic conditions already diagnosed in person, and they rule out internet diagnosis for first-visit patients^[1][2]. Before a first trip, what works is a records review by email through an international department, a paid teleconsultation or written opinion where a hospital publishes one, or a hospital-to-hospital remote consultation (远程会诊) requested by your own doctor. Internet-hospital follow-ups come after your first visit, and only if that hospital's app accepts your passport or travel permit.

The rules: what Chinese hospitals may do online

The National Health Commission (NHC) set the framework in 2018 with three documents (国卫医发〔2018〕25号) and tightened supervision in 2022 (国卫办医发〔2022〕2号)^[1][2]. In practice there are four channels:

Channel	Who can use it	What you get
Internet diagnosis / internet-hospital follow-up (互联网诊疗, 复诊)	Patients already diagnosed in person with a common or chronic condition	Online follow-up and e-prescriptions checked by a pharmacist[1]; some hospitals also order tests online[6][10]
Health or expert consultation (健康咨询, 专家咨询)	Registered app users, including first-time patients[5]; check which ID documents the app accepts	Advice and assessment, but no diagnosis, treatment plan or prescription for first-time patients[6][8][20]
Remote consultation (远程会诊)	Requested by your treating hospital	A signed opinion sent to the doctor treating you[1]
International-department programmes	Overseas patients, hospital by hospital	A records review, estimate or written opinion, as each hospital describes it[11][12][13]

The details that decide whether you qualify:

• Diagnosed in person first. The 2018 Measures (互联网诊疗管理办法（试行）) allow online follow-ups only once a patient has been clearly diagnosed at a physical medical institution, and state that internet diagnosis may not be offered to first-visit patients (Art. 16)^[1]. The Internet Hospital Measures (互联网医院管理办法（试行）) make one exception: when the doctor treating you at a physical hospital invites other doctors through an internet hospital, they may give a diagnostic opinion and prescribe (Art. 19)^[1]; the text does not say whether a hospital abroad counts. The 2022 Rules (互联网诊疗监管细则（试行）) require you to provide records with a clear diagnosis (an outpatient or inpatient record, discharge summary or diagnosis certificate) and tell the doctor to stop if the visit turns out to be a first visit or your condition has changed (Art. 18)^[2].
• Real names on both sides. Patients must give true identity documents and may not consult under someone else's name (Art. 17); doctors must verify their identity before seeing you, and no one else, including AI software, may stand in for them (Art. 13)^[2].
• Prescription limits. Online prescriptions need the doctor's e-signature and a pharmacist's review; narcotic and psychotropic drugs may not be prescribed online; children under 6 need a guardian and a relevant doctor present (2018 Measures, Arts. 18–19)^[1]. AI-generated prescriptions are banned, and medicines may not be supplied before a prescription (2022 Rules, Art. 21)^[2].

Inside China, online care supplements hospital visits rather than replacing them (Beijing, with 92 internet hospitals and 1.675 million internet diagnosis visits in 2024, called it "an important supplement" to in-person care^[25]) and is built around follow-ups for patients already in the system.

What's true, what's not

Claim you'll read online	Verdict	What the sources say
"A top Chinese doctor can diagnose you and prescribe online, no trip needed."	False for first visits	Internet-hospital diagnosis and prescribing are for follow-ups of conditions already diagnosed in person, or for consultations requested through an internet hospital by a doctor treating you in person[1][2]; an expert opinion on your records is possible (route 2).
"Foreigners can't use Chinese internet hospitals."	Depends on the hospital	Each hospital decides which documents its app accepts: the Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University added passports and travel permits to its online services in 2022[10], and Peking University Third Hospital's app now takes a passport for registration, which its 2022 FAQ did not yet allow[27][5].
"You can book a remote consultation (远程会诊) directly with a Chinese hospital."	Two different things	A formal 远程会诊 is requested by your treating hospital, which decides on treatment[1]. Some hospitals also sell remote consultations or teleconsultations to patients directly (routes 1 and 2), without mentioning prescriptions[11][12][13]. Ask which you are getting.
"International remote consultation" means Chinese doctors reviewing your case from abroad.	Sometimes the reverse	West China Hospital's international consultation service connects its own patients with US centres such as Mayo Clinic and Memorial Sloan Kettering[17]; Peking University International Hospital and Guang'anmen Hospital advise patients abroad[11][15]. Check which way a service runs.
"Pay us and a famous expert will consult you online this week."	Red flag	The NHC warns against online consultations sold by influencer doctors[19].

Can foreigners and overseas Chinese use Chinese internet hospitals?

Sometimes. The national rules require real names but do not list which documents count, and the texts we read say nothing about where the patient must be located^[1][2]. Each hospital decides:

• Passports and permits accepted online. In June 2022 the Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University (复旦大学附属眼耳鼻喉科医院) in Shanghai became the first hospital in the city to open its online services to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan residents and foreigners, adding foreign passports, Chinese passports held by overseas Chinese (华侨护照), the Home Return Permit and the Taiwan permit to its ID options for online follow-ups and repeat prescriptions^[10].
• Passport registration in the app. Peking University Third Hospital's International Medical Department, opened in 2023, tells patients to register and open a patient file in the hospital's app or its WeChat service account (北医三院服务号) with their own ID card, passport or other valid document^[27]. An earlier restriction has been lifted: the hospital's November 2022 app FAQ said passports and other non-ID-card documents could not yet (暂时) create a patient profile online, so passport holders registered at the hospital first. The same 2022 FAQ limited online follow-up to stable patients treated there for the same condition (inpatients within two years; for outpatients it said six months in one answer and a year in another) and capped prescriptions at 30 days' supply^[5]. Ordinary booking, for example on Beijing's 114 platform^[25], is a separate channel (how to book a hospital appointment).
• Follow-ups only. HKU-Shenzhen Hospital's internet general-practice clinic accepts follow-up patients only; first-time patients must be seen at the hospital^[7].
• Records from elsewhere may count. Wuhan No. 1 Hospital defines a follow-up patient as someone with a recent record for the same disease at that hospital or another medical institution, clearly diagnosed and stable^[8]. In a 2020 case reported by Wuhan's Changjiang Web, a doctor there gave a first-time user in Malaysia a preliminary diagnosis (tinea cruris) and asked him to confirm it with a fungal test at a local hospital; once he uploaded his Malaysian records and the positive result, another doctor confirmed the diagnosis online and prescribed treatment. The first doctor stressed that a first online visit allows only advice^[9].
• Taiwan residents: Fujian has required hospital booking systems to accept the Taiwan permit (台胞证) since 2018^[26]. That covers online booking, not online diagnosis.

We could not find a national list of internet hospitals that accept foreign passports, or any rule that either guarantees or forbids access from abroad. Hospital apps register users with an SMS verification code (Peking University Third Hospital's 2022 FAQ mentions one^[5]); check whether an app accepts a non-mainland number before you rely on it, and see apps and connectivity.

The deliveries we found stay in mainland China. Wuhan No. 1 Hospital ships only room-temperature oral medicines such as tablets, capsules and granules by courier, with at most five drugs and one month's supply per prescription^[8]; in the 2020 Malaysia case its system rejected the overseas address because e-prescription delivery was limited to China, so the patient had the parcel sent to a forwarding station in Guangdong and re-shipped it himself^[9]. Your country's import rules decide whether that is allowed, so plan to carry what you need (medicines and prescriptions).

Four routes to a Chinese doctor's opinion, before and between trips

1. Email the international department your records

This is the standard route (how it works, step 4). Official pages describe these services; only the first two say what happens to records you send before a first visit:

Hospital	What the official page offers	Contact as published
Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital (天津医科大学肿瘤医院)	Free consulting on emailed records; department experts decide whether you need to come or can have a remote consultation, and send a conclusion or suggestion[12]	info@tjmuch.com; tel/fax +86 22 2335 9337
Taikang Xianlin Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing	Answers to medical questions before arrival, a cost estimate for the whole treatment, and a doctor's remote consultation before you come[13]	customer@tkhealthcare.com; 24-hour line +86 25 8316 9988
Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai	Email booking, reply within one working day; the Shanghai government listing names "Remote Consultation" but not whether the hospital reviews records from abroad, so ask[16]	customer.service@zs-hospital.sh.cn
Peking University Shenzhen Hospital	Telemedicine for its patients in China or overseas after a visit: online specialist and multidisciplinary consultations, report explanation, medication guidance and follow-up (January 2026 guide for insured patients); ask whether it reviews new patients' records[14]	pksuzhvipcenter@163.com; +86 755 8353 4746 (English available)

Keep the first message short and bilingual (the inquiry letter tool drafts it), and send the documents listed in medical records to bring to China. Ordinary outpatient departments rarely answer email; international departments explained covers who does. Treat any estimate as provisional until a doctor has examined you.

2. A paid teleconsultation or written opinion

A few hospitals publish structured services:

• Peking University International Hospital runs an international teleconsultation. You apply online or by email (pub-gjyygjylzx-gw@pkucare.com) with scans of your reports, DICOM imaging and a copy of your passport data page. The team reviews the file, proposes a specialist and issues a payment notice (international wire transfer or card). The video consultation typically lasts 60–90 minutes, your family or local doctor can join, and an interpreter is provided if needed; a written English report with the expert's diagnostic conclusions, treatment recommendations and medication guidance follows within 7–10 business days^[11]. The page mentions no prescription or fee; the report is an expert opinion for your own doctor to act on.
• Guang'anmen Hospital, a Beijing TCM hospital, says its international department offers international remote consultations and TCM second opinions worldwide, and that partnerships with more than ten medical and doctor groups in Japan, the US and elsewhere already run two-way referrals and cross-border consultations^[15]. Fees are not published; contact gam_international@126.com or +86 10 8800 1248.
• Cancer: for MDT reviews, pathology re-reads and what to send, see cancer second opinion in China.

Two cautions. An opinion based on records is not an examination; plans are confirmed or changed once doctors see you. And do not expect medicines with it: online prescriptions are reserved for follow-ups and for consultations that a doctor treating you in person requests through an internet hospital^[1].

3. Ask your doctor for a hospital-to-hospital remote consultation

Under the NHC's telemedicine norms (远程医疗服务管理规范（试行）), a remote consultation (远程会诊) happens between institutions^[1]:

1. The hospital treating you (the "inviting party") sends the request with a case summary and the specialty it needs.
2. You are told what it involves and costs, and sign a written consent.
3. At least one licensed doctor takes part on your side; the consulting doctor needs at least three years of independent clinical practice.
4. The Chinese hospital returns an opinion report signed by its doctors. Your own doctor decides on diagnosis and treatment, and the inviting party carries legal responsibility for a remote consultation.

Remote reading of pathology, imaging and ECGs falls under the same rules^[1]. Cross-border versions exist where hospitals have agreements: Xinjiang's hospitals have built cross-border telemedicine platforms with 22 large institutions in neighbouring countries, and a patient in Kazakhstan reached the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University remotely with the help of the local hospital; in February 2023 specialists from both countries agreed the treatment plan together^[18]. The national text does not say how its rules apply when the inviting hospital is abroad, so ask your specialist whether their hospital has, or will sign, an agreement with the Chinese hospital.

4. Hong Kong and Macau residents: cross-border tools

• Go once, then follow up online. After a first visit across the border, internet hospitals that accept the Home Return Permit can handle follow-ups (the Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University lists it^[10]); HKU-Shenzhen Hospital's internet clinic sees follow-up patients only^[7].
• Share your Hong Kong records. Since 24 December 2025, all eHealth users (about 6.3 million) can use the app's Cross-boundary Health Record function to apply for their last three years of records before consulting at 20 designated institutions outside Hong Kong: HKU-Shenzhen Hospital and the institutions in the Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme. You show two QR codes to the doctor and are notified each time your records are viewed; caregivers can apply for family members^[23].
• Bring images home. Since 27 January 2026 you can authorise HKU-Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen New Frontier United Family Hospital and Zhongshan Chen Xinghai Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine to deposit radiology reports and images into your eHealth Personal Folder^[24].

These are Hong Kong government schemes; Macau residents are not covered. Vouchers, the Hospital Authority pilot and 港澳药械通 are explained in cross-border care for Hong Kong and Macau residents.

Limits to plan around

• Not for urgent or worsening symptoms. Get care where you are rather than wait for a review or reply. Peking University Third Hospital's internet hospital turns away emergencies and worsening conditions, Wuhan No. 1 Hospital tells urgent or serious cases to seek care nearby^[6][8], and doctors must stop an online consultation that turns out to be a first visit^[2].
• Your data. Under China's Personal Information Protection Law, medical and health information is sensitive personal information: it may be processed only for a specific, necessary purpose under strict protection (Art. 28) and, where consent is the legal basis, with your separate consent (Art. 29); consent is not needed where another legal basis applies, such as when processing is necessary to conclude or perform a contract with you or to protect life and health in an emergency (Art. 13). Collection must be limited to what the purpose needs (Art. 6). A hospital sending personal information out of China must tell you who receives it, get your separate consent (Art. 39) and use one of the legal transfer routes (Art. 38)^[3]. A 2024 regulation exempts transfers genuinely necessary to perform a contract with you from the security assessment, standard contract and certification procedures, but not from notice and consent (Arts. 5 and 10)^[4]. Internet hospitals may not keep medical data on servers abroad^[1] and must keep online records for at least 15 years, chat and video logs for at least 3^[2]. In practice: expect consent forms, send records only through channels on the hospital's official site, and ask how the report will reach you.
• Time zones. All of China runs on Beijing time (UTC+8, no daylight saving). Peking University International Hospital's coordinators work 9:00–18:00 Beijing time on weekdays and try to fit your time zone^[11]. Text consultations are not live: Wuhan No. 1 Hospital refunds automatically if no doctor replies within 24 hours^[8], and Peking University Third Hospital's 2022 FAQ said doctors usually reply within 48 hours because they answer outside clinic hours^[5].
• Language. Internet-hospital apps are built for Chinese speakers. Foreign-language support comes mainly from international departments: interpreters at Peking University International Hospital^[11]; Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean at Guang'anmen^[15]; English, French, Japanese, Cantonese and more at Peking University Shenzhen Hospital^[14]. Prepare a bilingual summary and translated key reports (language and interpreters).
• Continuity. An opinion from China helps only if a doctor at home can act on it; keep yours involved (medical records and follow-up).

Red flags

• "Famous expert" consultations sold outside the hospital. In July 2025 the NHC warned against influencer doctors who steer people into online consultations and drug sales, reminded patients that a first visit must be completed in person before follow-ups at a qualified internet hospital, and pointed to its website for checking medical institutions^[19]. In 2024 a Guangzhou court sentenced two organisers who sold elderly people online consultations with more than 300 "famous TCM doctors": the prescriptions came from rented diagnostic software, signed by an ordinary doctor, and about 1,000 victims lost more than ¥5.21 million^[21]. Reporters have also found platforms publishing answers under real doctors' names without permission; a Beijing Internet Court judge noted that health consultation, unlike internet diagnosis, may not give a specific treatment plan^[20].
• Requests for full ID scans before you have verified anyone. Real-name registration happens with the hospital itself^[2]. A hospital's own programme may ask for a passport data-page copy after you apply (Peking University International Hospital's does^[11]), but an unverified "coordinator" who wants passport scans, ID cards, selfies or bank details up front is a warning sign. In May 2025 Macau's Judiciary Police warned that a mainland health website had used Macau hospitals' names and doctors' details without permission on fake booking pages that asked for personal data^[22]. Chinese law limits collection to what the purpose requires^[3].
• Prescriptions without records, "guaranteed" appointments, payment to a personal account. A real internet hospital checks your diagnosis records and may not issue AI-generated prescriptions^[2]; see also common pitfalls.

How to check: start from the hospital's official website (our directory links to it). A licensed internet hospital's name includes 互联网医院 plus its hospital's name (sometimes with a partner's) or, if set up independently, its operator's name (Internet Hospital Measures, Art. 12)^[1]. It must display its doctors' electronic credentials and publish its fees, and appears on lists that local health authorities publish (2022 Rules, Arts. 8, 10 and 23)^[2]. You can also check a doctor's registration, as explained in is it safe?.

Next steps

• Prepare your file with medical records to bring to China and getting your medical records translated.
• Write your first message with the inquiry letter tool, and read international departments explained.
• Seeking an oncology opinion? Start with cancer second opinion in China.
• Find hospitals with published international services in the directory.
• Once you travel: how to book a hospital appointment and your first hospital visit without a Chinese ID; Taiwan residents see care in the mainland for Taiwan residents.
• Turn the replies you get into a trip with the CareAtlas planner.