The unified index for medical insurance pathology has officially launched, enabling precise medical care through seamless code interoperability.

The Unified Index of Medical Insurance Pathology Cloud Officially Implemented to Empower Precision Medicine On August 14, 2026, the National Healthcare Security Administration officially issued the "Coding Specification for the 'Medical Insurance Pathology Cloud Index'." This is another landmark achievement in the digital construction of medical insurance following the "Medical Insurance Imaging Cloud." It aims to address industry pain points such as the non-standardization and poor circulation of pathology data by developing a nationally unified pathology data index. This initiative will enable the pathology data from medical institutions to truly "come alive," "run," and "be utilized," breaking down barriers to data sharing across regions and institutions, continuously empowering convenient medical treatment and clinical diagnosis, and promoting the digital and intelligent development of the pathology industry. I. Data Disconnection Causes Inconveniences for Patients and Healthcare Providers Pathology diagnosis is the "gold standard" for clinical disease diagnosis. For instance, determining whether a lung glassy nodule is benign or malignant, or whether it is primary or metastatic, ultimately relies on pathology slide analysis to draw conclusions. The results of pathology diagnoses directly determine key aspects of treatment, such as defining the range of surgery, formulating chemotherapy and radiotherapy plans, and evaluating prognosis. They are core evidence for the precision treatment of complex diseases like tumors, liver diseases, and kidney diseases, and they serve as vital data resources for clinical quality control, targeted therapies, and new drug development, possessing immense medical and research value. For a long time, domestic pathology data has been trapped in a "" (island of isolation). Traditional pathology examinations depend on physical glass slides. Even though some institutions have completed the digital upgrade for pathology, due to incompatible equipment and non-standard data formats, core data such as digital slide images and pathology reports remain "stuck in the institution and locked in departments," making it difficult to realize the value of the data. Against this backdrop, both patients and healthcare providers face numerous pain points: For patients, when seeking treatment across institutions, they must carry pathology slides to multiple locations. The borrowing and returning of slides often take two to three weeks, and some patients even need to undergo repeat biopsies at the treating hospital, negatively impacting medical efficiency and patient experience. For healthcare providers, medical institutions are unable to conduct routine remote pathology consultations based on shared pathology examination data, and high-quality superior data resources cannot effectively reach grassroots levels, limiting the enhancement of pathology examination service capabilities across regions. II. Unified Coding Provides a Unique Identifier for Pathology Data To thoroughly break the barriers of sharing pathology data, the National Healthcare Security Administration has established a national medical insurance pathology cloud system, creating the "Medical Insurance Pathology Cloud Index" coding rules. This generates a nationally universal and unique "ID card" for every pathology examination of patients, allowing for the rapid and accurate retrieval of pathology data across regions and institutions, and promoting pathology examinations to a new era of digitalization, standardization, and universality. The released Medical Insurance Pathology Cloud Index consists of eight parts, totaling 79 characters, covering comprehensive core examination information that is complete and traceable. Among them, the document type and number lock in the patient's main identity, the type of visit distinguishes between outpatient and inpatient treatment scenarios, while the pathology application number, pathology number, examination time, and category accurately locate data from a single examination. The institution's code clarifies the entity providing the diagnostic report, ensuring comprehensive collection, precise matching, and secure sharing of pathology data. III. Multiple Parties Benefit from the Value of Standardization The unified Medical Insurance Pathology Cloud Index builds a solid foundation for standardized cloud storage, retrieval, and sharing of nationwide pathology data, fully activating new momentum for the smart development of healthcare. Convenient medical treatment reduces costs. Relying on the unified index, national pathology data can be interconnected, allowing healthcare institutions to access a patient's full lifecycle pathology records online. Patients no longer need to carry physical slides across locations, effectively saving time and economic costs, while continuously enhancing the convenience of seeking medical treatment across regions and improving public satisfaction. Enhancing efficiency for medical institutions. The unified index breaks down regional and institutional hierarchies. For large hospitals, this can streamline clinical processes and enhance efficiency; for grassroots medical institutions, it allows for effective connections with high-quality expert resources, leveraging standardized digital slides and AI-assisted diagnostics to reduce human error in interpretation, improving diagnostic accuracy, filling gaps in grassroots treatment, and promoting the homogenization and precision of pathology examination services across the board. Norming the industry for industrial growth. Currently, over 95% of medical institutions' pathology departments in China have yet to achieve digital upgrades. The implementation of coding specifications will activate the market for upgrading digital pathologies in thousands of medical institutions nationwide, promoting the iteration and popularization of industrial chain products like digital pathology slide scanning, AI-assisted diagnostics, and pathology information systems, leading the digital pathology industry into a new stage of standardization, normalization, and high-quality development. IV. Phased Implementation to Continuously Strengthen the Digital Service Capacity of Medical Insurance The release of the "Coding Specification for the 'Medical Insurance Pathology Cloud Index'" is not only a response to the public's concerns about redundant examinations when seeking treatment across institutions but also a key step towards digital and refined governance in medical insurance. The National Healthcare Security Administration will adhere to the principle of combining code repositories, developing supporting standardized data sets to unify the aggregation of data on disease diagnoses, tumor classifications, settlements, and to guide local areas in phasing the collection and sharing of cloud-based pathology data. In the future, with the full implementation of the medical insurance pathology cloud, it will continue to reduce burdens, balance medical resources, safeguard fund security, and empower high-quality development of medical insurance through standardized digitalization. This article is excerpted from the National Healthcare Security Administration, edited by GMTEight: Chen Wenfang.