Page 340 - 2019 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
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9 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
infancy. Intelligent medicine will profoundly transform 2017, a year-on-year increase of 40.7 percent, according
the medical care sector, and may bring great benefits to a report recently released by the Beijing Commission
to both patients and doctors, adding that 124 hospitals of Economy and Information Technology. It’s expected
have practiced intelligent medicine in China. A big that the market value will exceed 20 billion yuan by the
challenge in developing intelligent medicine in China is end of 2018, accounting for roughly one-fifth of the AI
a serious shortage of talented people who excel in both industry (Wang, New AI).
medicine and information technology. As with many
other sectors, the latest big data and AI technologies are China is moving quickly. More than 130 companies
increasingly being integrated with the health sector. The are currently working on applying AI in the country’s
ophthalmic center in Guangzhou, for example, opened health-care sector. Crafting algorithms that can process
the first AI clinic in China in 2017 to diagnose cataracts medical images, such as CT scans and x-rays, is a
with the help of an AI-assisted platform. In a clinic at particularly hot field for China’s startups. One reason
the center, images of patients’ eyes are uploaded to the is that image classification plays to the strength of the
platform, and a diagnosis can be given within minutes. latest deep-learning algorithms, AI is also being used
Treatment plans are also offered for doctors’ reference. in other areas. Peijun Lv, a prosthodontist in Beijing,
The accuracy of the AI diagnoses exceeds 90 percent. is collaborating with Tsinghua University to develop
Watson for Oncology, a cognitive computing platform an AI program that can design dentures. A prototype
designed by US company IBM can provide treatment algorithm was trained using rules on denture design,
options to commonly seen cancers. It has been used drawn from textbooks, and 30,000 real cases labeled by
at 65 big hospitals in 39 cities in China, according to Fu doctors. “It can replicate the expertise of experienced
Gang, chairman of Baheal Pharm, which introduced the doctors,” says Lv. He plans to run clinical trials of the
system to the country in 2017. The system is expected algorithm later in 2018 (Sun).
to be used at more grassroots hospitals to help improve
cancer diagnoses (Wang, Merger). China hopes that robots can go some way in fixing
the severe problem of doctor shortages. China only has
As AI has become increasingly accepted and applied 2.3 physicians for every 1,000 people as of 2016, while its
in various fields, the pharma industry is playing catch- rapidly aging population is adding more pressure to the
up, but there are positive things emerging in China. A healthcare system. Chinese tech titan Tencent and one
large number of applications to get market approval of the country’s leading voice-recognition firms, iFlytek,
for medical devices that employ deep learning, a are among the companies working with the Guangzhou
subset of artificial intelligence, are expected to be filed hospital. Using WeChat, the chat app owned by Tencent,
in 2019, but full commercialization of the products is users get a pre-diagnosis through the hospital’s public
not necessarily within easy reach. AI companies and account. An “intelligent doctor” will ask the patient a
conventional medical companies that are charging into series of questions, similar to a self-diagnosis attempt
the AI field predict that applications for such devices on WebMD. To build the database, the hospital said it
will soar in 2019, said Sun Lei, head of the Center for spent nearly two years to study more than 100,000
Medical Device Evaluation. Sun cited the example of digital medical records spanning 12 years. The hospital
the booming medical 3D printing industry in 2017. also trained the AI tool using data from over 300 million
“We project a similar trajectory for AI - the number medical records from other hospitals in China dating
of applications will increase a year after a fledgling back to the 1990s. The tool has an accuracy rate of over
technology becomes a hot spot for investment and 90 percent for diagnoses of more than 200 diseases.
news headlines,” he said. However, there’s still a long The hospital also uses facial recognition to create files
way to go for AI systems to be legitimately used in the for first-time patients. After recording a short video, the
country’s healthcare system. It usually takes a year to system will match an image extracted from the video
get market approval for a new medical device in China. to one that is stored in China’s national public security
To better evaluate novel devices, the center recently system (Huang).
formed a team to create a regulatory framework for AI
medical devices. After a device is approved, the State Pharmaceuticals
Drug Administration is charged with monitoring its
stability and quality. The domestic market for AI medical China is moving toward a more value-add economy.
devices reached 13 billion yuan (US$1.95 billion) in Healthcare is an industry where major industry in the
340
infancy. Intelligent medicine will profoundly transform 2017, a year-on-year increase of 40.7 percent, according
the medical care sector, and may bring great benefits to a report recently released by the Beijing Commission
to both patients and doctors, adding that 124 hospitals of Economy and Information Technology. It’s expected
have practiced intelligent medicine in China. A big that the market value will exceed 20 billion yuan by the
challenge in developing intelligent medicine in China is end of 2018, accounting for roughly one-fifth of the AI
a serious shortage of talented people who excel in both industry (Wang, New AI).
medicine and information technology. As with many
other sectors, the latest big data and AI technologies are China is moving quickly. More than 130 companies
increasingly being integrated with the health sector. The are currently working on applying AI in the country’s
ophthalmic center in Guangzhou, for example, opened health-care sector. Crafting algorithms that can process
the first AI clinic in China in 2017 to diagnose cataracts medical images, such as CT scans and x-rays, is a
with the help of an AI-assisted platform. In a clinic at particularly hot field for China’s startups. One reason
the center, images of patients’ eyes are uploaded to the is that image classification plays to the strength of the
platform, and a diagnosis can be given within minutes. latest deep-learning algorithms, AI is also being used
Treatment plans are also offered for doctors’ reference. in other areas. Peijun Lv, a prosthodontist in Beijing,
The accuracy of the AI diagnoses exceeds 90 percent. is collaborating with Tsinghua University to develop
Watson for Oncology, a cognitive computing platform an AI program that can design dentures. A prototype
designed by US company IBM can provide treatment algorithm was trained using rules on denture design,
options to commonly seen cancers. It has been used drawn from textbooks, and 30,000 real cases labeled by
at 65 big hospitals in 39 cities in China, according to Fu doctors. “It can replicate the expertise of experienced
Gang, chairman of Baheal Pharm, which introduced the doctors,” says Lv. He plans to run clinical trials of the
system to the country in 2017. The system is expected algorithm later in 2018 (Sun).
to be used at more grassroots hospitals to help improve
cancer diagnoses (Wang, Merger). China hopes that robots can go some way in fixing
the severe problem of doctor shortages. China only has
As AI has become increasingly accepted and applied 2.3 physicians for every 1,000 people as of 2016, while its
in various fields, the pharma industry is playing catch- rapidly aging population is adding more pressure to the
up, but there are positive things emerging in China. A healthcare system. Chinese tech titan Tencent and one
large number of applications to get market approval of the country’s leading voice-recognition firms, iFlytek,
for medical devices that employ deep learning, a are among the companies working with the Guangzhou
subset of artificial intelligence, are expected to be filed hospital. Using WeChat, the chat app owned by Tencent,
in 2019, but full commercialization of the products is users get a pre-diagnosis through the hospital’s public
not necessarily within easy reach. AI companies and account. An “intelligent doctor” will ask the patient a
conventional medical companies that are charging into series of questions, similar to a self-diagnosis attempt
the AI field predict that applications for such devices on WebMD. To build the database, the hospital said it
will soar in 2019, said Sun Lei, head of the Center for spent nearly two years to study more than 100,000
Medical Device Evaluation. Sun cited the example of digital medical records spanning 12 years. The hospital
the booming medical 3D printing industry in 2017. also trained the AI tool using data from over 300 million
“We project a similar trajectory for AI - the number medical records from other hospitals in China dating
of applications will increase a year after a fledgling back to the 1990s. The tool has an accuracy rate of over
technology becomes a hot spot for investment and 90 percent for diagnoses of more than 200 diseases.
news headlines,” he said. However, there’s still a long The hospital also uses facial recognition to create files
way to go for AI systems to be legitimately used in the for first-time patients. After recording a short video, the
country’s healthcare system. It usually takes a year to system will match an image extracted from the video
get market approval for a new medical device in China. to one that is stored in China’s national public security
To better evaluate novel devices, the center recently system (Huang).
formed a team to create a regulatory framework for AI
medical devices. After a device is approved, the State Pharmaceuticals
Drug Administration is charged with monitoring its
stability and quality. The domestic market for AI medical China is moving toward a more value-add economy.
devices reached 13 billion yuan (US$1.95 billion) in Healthcare is an industry where major industry in the
340
