2026 National Competition on Medical Simulators and Health Sensor Intelligent Perception Officially Launched

On April 27, the press conference for the 2026 China Medical Simulator and Health Sensor Intelligent Sensing Competition (hereinafter referred to as the Competition) was held in Changsha, Hunan Province, announcing the official launch of the event. Relevant officials from the National Healthcare Security Administration and the People's Government of Hunan Province attended the press conference.

The competition is hosted by the National Healthcare Security Administration and the People’s Government of Hunan Province, and organized by the Big Data Center of the National Healthcare Security Administration, the Hunan Provincial Healthcare Security Administration, and the Changsha Municipal People’s Government. Themed “Xiang Meets Innovation: Smart Sensing for a Better Future—Innovation Empowering New Scenarios and Applications in Medical Simulators and Health Sensors,” the event aims to implement the national strategies for the digital economy and “AI+,” gather innovative achievements, break through core technologies, drive the scaled development of the advantageous industries in healthcare, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals (“Three Medicals”), and achieve the goals of promoting innovation, integration, and application through competition.

As the first national-level special competition in China to focus on the two major fields of medical simulators and health sensors, this contest will select a batch of outstanding products, application scenarios, and innovative cases in related fields. Driven by empowerment through medical insurance, it aims to enhance the application value and industrial scale in this sector, build an integrated innovation ecosystem featuring “government, industry, academia, research, and application” with intelligent sensing via medical simulators and health sensors as its hallmark, and promote the construction of “Healthy China” and the high-quality development of smart medical insurance initiatives nationwide.

The competition precisely features two major tracks: medical simulators and health sensors. The medical simulator track encompasses three categories: physical manikins and core components, digital simulation and AI-powered virtual patients, and embodied nursing robots. The health sensor track is subdivided into ten groups, including blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood oxygen saturation, to accurately address clinical and home healthcare needs.

As the host of the event, Hunan boasts profound expertise and unique advantages in the fields of healthcare and intelligent manufacturing. The province is rich in innovation resources, with top-tier institutions such as Xiangya School of Medicine of Central South University, Furong Laboratory, and National University of Defense Technology bringing together world-class research teams and advanced experimental facilities, thereby fostering an innovative ecosystem characterized by deep integration of industry, academia, and research. The strategic objectives pursued by Changsha Municipal People’s Government, the event organizer—namely, advancing the construction of a global R&D hub and strengthening key industrial chains in biopharmaceuticals and medical devices—are highly aligned with the competition’s goal of building an integrated innovation ecosystem.

In terms of digital and intelligent transformation, Hunan Province took the lead in establishing the foundational framework of the “Three-Medical-One-Network” system. This initiative promotes coordinated development and governance among healthcare services, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals, achieving integrated aggregation and linkage of data across these three sectors. It provides robust digital support for the practical application of competition outcomes and for empowering medical insurance systems.

Meanwhile, Hunan boasts a world-class industrial cluster in the field of intelligent manufacturing, which aligns closely with precision manufacturing, sensor technology, new materials, medical simulators, and health sensors. In recent years, the province’s medical device industry cluster has risen prominently, with a number of enterprises possessing core competitiveness in smart wearables, remote monitoring, and surgical simulation rapidly growing. This development has provided abundant industrial scenarios and a solid practical foundation for the research, development, and application of medical simulators and health sensors.

The competition is open to a wide range of participants, including domestic and international medical institutions, universities, research institutes, enterprises, and individuals. Outstanding award-winning achievements are expected to be given priority for inclusion in the medical insurance service items catalog, the medical consumables catalog, and the scope of personal account payments. They will also receive preferential policy support for medical device registration, promotion and application, and investment in factory construction. Changsha City will establish a four-tier advancement system featuring provincial-level coordination, municipal-level implementation, industrial park hosting, and industry-wide collaboration. Working mechanisms such as joint conferences, project liaison, and supervision and assessment will be instituted. The conversion of scientific and technological achievements will be incorporated into performance evaluations. A series of support measures, including physical space provision, enterprise registration, and policy incentive fulfillment, will be provided to ensure the successful landing of projects, thereby effectively transforming the “traffic” generated by the competition into “incremental growth” for industrial development.

A representative from the competition’s organizing committee stated that they look forward to the active participation of innovative teams in relevant fields, leveraging technology to empower the healthcare sector. The aim is to identify a cohort of innovations with genuine clinical value and industrial potential, and to accelerate the translation of these technologies from the “laboratory” to the “ward,” and from the “competition arena” to the “market,” through the enabling role of medical insurance. This will ensure that advanced technologies truly serve the public’s health needs.

The competition is structured into two stages: the preliminary round and the final round. The preliminary round is scheduled for June, during which technical evaluations of the participating projects will be conducted at designated locations. The final round is planned for July, comprising technical re-evaluations and on-site defenses. The online registration portal for the competition is now open, with a deadline of May 31. Participants can register via the official competition website (mnrcgqds.ybj.hunan.gov.cn) Registration. Competition inquiry email: 2026chs_hunan@hnsybj.cn; contact phone numbers: 4001108003, 0731-84900240.