Innovation, collaboration creating a brighter future for healthcare

Nearly 200 experts, scholars, government officials, and industry representatives from around the world gathered to explore the development of digital health in Beijing from Friday to Saturday at the Forum on Adoption and Development of Digital Health and Innovative Medical Technologies.

The event, jointly hosted by the Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMed) and the Institute for Global Industry of Tsinghua University, was a part of the regular activities of the Zhongguancun Forum.

Zhang Jun, director of the Office at the Center for Medical Sociology at Tsinghua University, said: "The forum facilitated discussions on key issues in digital health. It focused on policies and pathways and new clinical technologies, aiming to explore opportunities and models for promoting innovation across the whole chain and process."

Alicia Chang, country lead of APACMed in China, said in the opening remark that "the forum emphasized the collaboration between government, enterprises, universities, research institutes and users. We hope to create an innovative ecosystem jointly to generate new quality productive forces."

She added that guiding the development of innovative medical technology through presenting the latest achievements and application cases of the APACMed in government-industry-university-research collaborative innovation is also key to the shared goal of all sides.

The forum invited experts in the MedTech industry to share cases from the Asia-Pacific.

Gabriel Sim, director of Strategic Partnerships of APACMed, said that the cases about innovation through collaboration and partnership are crucial for collaboration, and typical cases of innovation promoted by corporations, academia, health systems, and accelerators in scaling innovation are inspiring to start-up companies across Asia.

"China's medical innovation can draw valuable lessons from successful innovations in other countries and have great potential accessing other markets as well," he said.

Zhang Qin, a dual-appointed professor from Tsinghua University's Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology and Department of Computer Science and Technology, shared the application of dynamic uncertain causal graphs in the clinical diagnosis and introduced the advantages of the new generation of AI theoretical systems compared to big data machine learning.

He said that innovative technology will provide solid support for China's hierarchical medical treatment system.

Peng Kaiping, dean of the Institute for Global Industry at Tsinghua University, said that the promotion of digital technologies will help the development of the country's public health, in particular, psychological health.

"In a sense, continuous development of digital technologies enables people to live healthier and happier," he said.

Wang Ningli, former director of Tongren Eye Center and president of the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology, highlighted the role of artificial intelligence in protecting eye health, an increasingly common but often neglected public health issue.

Two panel discussions were held around the topic of medical technology translation.

Guest speakers shared experiences in the overseas marketization of medical innovation products and clinical institutions' transformation efforts.

The Forum on Adoption and Development of Digital Health and Innovative Medical Technologies aims to set up a platform for academic exchange and experience sharing to strengthen exchanges among countries in the Asia-Pacific region in medical technologies, striving to enhance communication between member enterprises and promote the development of medical technology and global health.

"The organization of the Forum on Adoption and Development of Digital Health and Innovative Medical Technologies is of great significance for promoting the innovative development of China's medical and health field," Peng said.

"We hope that, through such an exchange platform, the application and promotion of cutting-edge technologies can be accelerated to contribute greatly to the health and well-being of the people," he added.

Wei Wangyu contributed to this story.