晚清中国面临的外患大多来自海洋。为了巩固海防，清廷开始筹建海军。历经几十载的酝酿与谋划，北洋海军终于成长为晚清最先步入近代化的一支武装力量。与此同时，近代西医自传教士在华“以医传教”的布道活动中剥离而出，并凭借长于外科急救的优势得以扎根晚清社会并进入海军医疗保障领域。因此，北洋海军的医疗保障制度形成于西学东渐的过程中、应用于抵御外侮的实践中，近代色彩鲜明。从体系构建和实际运行两个方面来看，北洋海军医疗保障制度呈现出设计内容较全但战时效能较弱、独立性不足而社会性有余的特点。其虽有近代化的改观，但仍处在古今相混、华洋兼用的特殊阶段。北洋海军医疗保障制度的形成与应用不仅推动了中国军事医学理论和实践的发展，还加快了西医在华传播和中国近代医师走向职业化的速度。尽管北洋海军覆灭于中日甲午战争，但出自其医疗保障系统的人才和学校等力量仍然活跃在战后中国的近代事业之中。它们以一种活的形式将北洋海军医疗保障制度传承下来，并为之后编练新军和复兴海军时的中国军制建设提供了有益借鉴。

In the late Qing Dynasty, most of the external threats China faced came from the ocean. In order to consolidate coastal defense, the Qing Government began to establish a navy. After decades of deliberation and planning, the Beiyang Navy eventually grew into the first armed force that stepped into modernization in late Qing Dynasty. At the same times, Modern Western medicine emerged from the preaching activities of missionaries in China. By virtue of its expertise in surgical first aid, it had the opportunity to take root in late Qing society and enter the field of naval medical security. Therefore, the medical security system of the Beiyang Navy was formed in the process of the eastward transmission of Western sciences and applied in the practice of resisting foreign aggression, with a bright modern color. From the perspectives of system construction and practical operation, the medical security system of Beiyang Navy presents characteristics of relatively comprehensive design content but weak wartime efficiency, insufficient independence but surplus sociality. Although it has undergone modernization, it is still in a special stage where ancient and modern cultures are mixed and Chinese and foreign cultures are combined. The formation and application of the medical security system of the Beiyang Navy not only promoted the development of Chinese military medical theory and practice, but also accelerated the spread of Western medicine in China and the professionalization of modern Chinese medical doctors. Although the Beiyang Navy was destroyed in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, talents and schools from its medical security system were still active in the modern undertaking of post-war China. They inherited the medical security system of Beiyang Navy in a living form, and provided useful reference for the construction of Chinese military system in the later training of the New Army and the revitalization of the Navy.