Artificial intelligence fuels healthcare innovation in China

The wider adoption of artificial intelligence across healthcare is underpinning the Healthy China Initiative while fostering new quality productive forces in the healthcare sector, experts said.

"Artificial intelligence has a far-reaching impact on technological progress and human life, with medicine likely to become its most widely used and valuable application," said Fan Xianqun, dean of the School of Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

He made the remarks at a medical technology innovation conference held recently in Beijing, where the Global Convergence Platform of Healthcare Ecosystem (CPHE), a collaborative medical technology hub, unveiled a series of disruptive technologies spanning blood-related health solutions, cell and gene therapies, diagnosis and treatment for rare diseases, prevention and control of major brain disorders, and AI-enabled approaches to prevent and treat major diseases.

"All these achievements stem from urgent clinical needs," said Chang Zikui, head of the Tianjin Institute of Health Science under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. "Through deeper cross-disciplinary integration, including AI and medtech engineering, we have addressed many key bottlenecks in clinical application, which is at the heart of medical innovation."

These advances align with China's push for faster and more efficient translation of major scientific and technological breakthroughs into practical applications.

He Zhenxi, president of the Chinese Research Hospital Association, said that China should step up efforts to build a robust ecosystem for medical innovation by fostering open, mutually beneficial collaboration and removing barriers across data, disciplines and institutions, so that innovation resources can move more freely.