Framework for effective collaboration in telemedicine-based healthcare consortium in the 5G era: a case study in China

A telemedicine-based healthcare consortium is a hierarchical healthcare system comprising a telemedicine center and medical institutions at all levels, ensuring patients access to high-quality, convenient medical resources. It channels high-quality healthcare resources to rural areas, reduces patient costs, and enhances service quality. In the 5G era, the development of telemedicine-based healthcare consortia has significantly reshaped the collaboration mode and relationship between each medical institution. Moreover, the introduction of advanced information technologies such as 5G technology and blockchain has improved the scheduling efficiency of physicians and patients, enhanced information flow, and reduced the treatment cost of patients. To facilitate the sustainable operation of the telemedicine-based healthcare consortium, the aim of this paper is to develop a framework for effective collaboration in a telemedicine-based healthcare consortium in the 5 G era. The proposed framework consists of four stages: (1) conducting a literature review and analyzing China’s documents to examine the context and operations of the telemedicine-based healthcare consortium in China, (2) performing field research to identify key collaboration challenges, (3) designing several potential collaboration mechanisms, and (4) developing a novel mathematical model from an operations research perspective, followed by validation through data analysis. The designed collaboration mechanisms could ensure sufficient capacity, real-time information transmission, and revenue share in the telemedicine-based healthcare consortium. The optimal mechanism-integrated model outperforms the current fixed price model from the perspective of treatment costs for patients in the telemedicine center and the total cost of patient referral. 5 G-powered information technology could further enhance collaboration mechanisms and efficiency. The proposed framework provides useful support for the improvement of telemedicine-based consortiums’ operation efficiency and service quality. The decision-makers should keep strengthening the construction of information platforms to achieve information sharing, construct tight physician-patient collaboration, and explore appropriate economic collaboration methods. Building on this foundation, advanced operations research methodologies should be proactively applied in the telemedicine-based consortiums’ operation.