[Big News] CNS Launches Shanghai Health Directory

Shanghai has seen an influx of many new foreign faces this year, whether it's in the growth of the resident expats living here or the millions of tourists that have been breaking records visiting Shanghai. So, we thought it was high time to develop something that... would be considered critical digital infrastructure for the city: The CNS Shanghai Health Directory.

Other health directories exist; we know this. So... why would CNS step into the ring?

- Longevity: City News Service and Shanghai Daily have been deeply involved with Shanghai's healthcare industry for over 20 years. We know things that others just don't.

- More than Just 'Marketing': Our connections throughout Shanghai's healthcare industry extend well past a transactional relationship between talking to a hospital's marketing team and receiving cash for advertisements. We know the doctors, the administrators, and people within the governing institutions that give us unique insight into how Shanghai's system works.

- Real feedback from real users: We built the initial launch of the health guide to attune to the needs of expats. One of the questions that kept coming up was "but which hospital specializes in what." We know their specializations, so we put a focus on highlighting that.

- Comprehensive: We don't just focus on international hospitals. China pours billions into research & development in medical technology, pharmaceuticals, and cutting-edge treatments, many of which are being developed right here, in Shanghai. We've launched with 36 hospitals, 32 of which are public, City Level (Grade 3) with an A-Classification (top tier), and four international hospitals to start.

Shanghai is accelerating its strategic development into a premier Asian medical hub and an internationally acclaimed destination for cross-border healthcare. The city has continuously optimized policy frameworks and innovative pilot mechanisms to upgrade its global medical service system, and CNS is integrating itself into this optimization as digital infrastructure for people living here.

We're spoiled in Shanghai

Shanghai possesses a concentrated array of top-ranking public medical institutions and state-of-the-art clinical technologies. Boasting a professional legacy of serving foreign patients since the 1980s, the city has pioneered standardized international medical services nationwide. By implementing cross-border medical tourism pilots for both public and private hospitals, Shanghai has issued China's first local industrial standard for international medical care, establishing unified normative benchmarks covering multilingual medical assistance, cross-border consultation procedures, global insurance settlement, and standardized patient-centered service protocols.

Filter hospitals according to their specialties

Endowed with superior clinical competence, sophisticated medical technologies, efficient service procedures and outstanding cost-performance advantages, Shanghai has attracted a rising number of international patients from across the globe. Many travel thousands of miles to access comprehensive diagnosis, treatment and wellness services here, benefiting from both cutting-edge Western medical interventions and unique Traditional Chinese Medicine therapies for complex, refractory and chronic diseases.

Tailored for international audiences, foreign residents, overseas medical seekers and global healthcare practitioners, the newly launched Shanghai Health Directory systematically presents Shanghai's elite general and specialized hospitals, flagship clinical specialties and core disciplinary strengths. Each featured institution and key department is interpreted through authoritative, detailed and professional content, highlighting disciplinary highlights, innovative diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, advanced clinical practices, and signature medical services open to both domestic and international patients.

Each hospital profile has key facts and lists specialties

Shanghai Health Directory: Making Sense of Healthcare in Shanghai

Shanghai has some excellent hospitals. Finding the right one, figuring out which department you need, and actually getting an appointment? That's another matter, especially if you don't speak Chinese.

That's where the Shanghai Health Directory comes in.

The guide is designed to take some of the guesswork out of getting medical care in the city. It brings together practical, verified information about Shanghai's hospitals, particularly their international medical departments, and explains how to use their services.

The basics are all there: hospital addresses, telephone numbers, official contact channels, appointment procedures, booking requirements and what to expect when you arrive. The sort of information that's easy to overlook until you actually need it.

But the guide goes further than a hospital directory.

Through hospital profiles, reported features, videos and insights from medical professionals, the Shanghai Health Directory takes a closer look at what Shanghai's international medical services actually offer. From specialized orthopedic treatment at Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital to cancer care, cardiology and fertility services at Jiahui Health, the guide helps readers understand which hospitals are equipped to handle which needs. But finding the right specialist is only half the challenge. How do you book an appointment? What happens if you don't speak Chinese? And how do you arrange treatment when you're coming from overseas? The answers vary from hospital to hospital. Tongji Hospital, for example, offers multilingual services and direct billing arrangements with international insurers, while Jiahui Health provides international patients with assistance from their first inquiry through treatment and follow-up care after returning home. Different hospitals, different specialties, different procedures. The guide brings those details together so readers can spend less time figuring out the system and more time getting the care they need.

These are practical questions, and the answers aren't always straightforward.

Different hospitals have different procedures, specialties and services. An international department at one hospital might operate quite differently from another. The Shanghai Health Guide aims to make those distinctions clearer, helping readers identify appropriate departments, find specialists and understand the steps involved in arranging care.

This is only the beginning

For now, we list 36 hospitals, plus we've added a live feed of our health content. Later, we'll add pinned guides that people might need consistently. We'll add more hospitals (For now, the majority of the Public Hospitals are Grade 3 (City Level), but we'll add Grade 2 (District level) and Grade 1 (Community clinics) as time goes on.

And as usual, we're keen to hear your feedback. Have an idea or suggestion? Send us a note: info@citynewsservice.cn