Workers make TCM products in Northwest China's Gansu province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

As early as Feb 14, when COVID-19 was not spreading on a global scale, He Jialang, who was in Rome, Italy, already realized that time is life when it comes to epidemic prevention and control.

As a vice-president of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, after days of busy web browsing, he finally got in touch with Huatuo Cloud, a platform under Hangzhou-based digital health company WeDoctor, and launched an international traditional Chinese medicine epidemic prevention and control platform.

Joining TCM efforts from various countries and regions around the globe, the platform aims to promote internet-based TCM services to better serve people overseas.

Now, integrating the federation's TCM medical resources and WeDoctor's internet healthcare structure, overseas Chinese and others around the world can arm themselves with TCM knowledge in the fight against COVID-19.

"No one can stand alone in the face of a severe infectious disease. I hope that all TCM professionals can join hands, adopt multiple TCM treatment methods, give full play to internet-based technologies, and help our compatriots overseas to win the fight," He said.

As the epidemic developed into a pandemic, TCM demands from overseas Chinese have been constantly growing. On Saturday, WeDoctor launched the Global Consultation and Prevention Center — a global epidemic prevention and control platform, enabling 6,129 Chinese medical professionals to offer help to people overseas through the internet.

Three days later, a special zone, Famous TCM Doctors, was established on platform. The zone integrates previous services offered on Huatuo Cloud's international TCM epidemic prevention and control platform with the efforts of over 2,500 TCM experts from home and abroad to provide services for those outside China.

Through WeDoctor's official WeChat account, guahaowang, overseas users can enter the platform. On entering, just a simple click on Famous TCM Doctors gives users access to free services, such as online TCM consultation, which is open to all countries, and has no frequency of use during the epidemic, and anti-epidemic videos, just to name a few.

What China-based internet healthcare has contributed to the fight against the epidemic has caught broad attention overseas. At the beginning of February, a 39-year-old COVID-19 patient in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, the hard-hit region, turned to WeDoctor's Huatuo Cloud for online consultation.

Through the platform, Cao Hongxin, former head of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, and his team got to know the patient's condition, and made treatment recommendations based on his symptoms and tongue diagnosis.

After taking three remedies in TCM therapy, the patient's symptoms of fever and coughing were significantly relieved. By the middle of February, his nucleic acid test was negative twice. With the help of TCM intervention, none of the patient's four family members who were in close contact with him were affected.

Now, Cao's team has joined the TCM expert group on WeDoctor's platform. Outside China, TCM professionals from 13 countries, including Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Thailand, also "joined the army".

"Digital health is playing an increasingly important role in this fight. Thanks to previous communication and exchanges through online platforms, overseas TCM professionals mastered the spread of the epidemic situation and the frontline diagnosis and treatment methods in time, getting fully prepared for combating the epidemic," He said.

To offer the latest TCM diagnosis and treatment information to medical professionals around the globe, WeDoctor's platform organized its experts to translate TCM treatment plans that were included in the National Health Commission's seventh edition of COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment guidelines. Currently, the Chinese and English versions are available on GCPC's Famous TCM Doctors zone, and other language versions will be added soon.