Shukang Launches Intelligent Precision Nutrition Therapy System with 75% Nutrient Recognition Accuracy
Leveraging AI algorithms to convert images into 3D models, and having undergone comparative analysis of over 10 million pairs of 2D and 3D images, this tool identifies the content of nutrients such as energy, protein, fat, and carbohydrates in food. It helps individuals with nutritional therapy needs achieve efficient nutritional management. This management tool, "Shukang Diet," which can accurately identify the nutritional content of food through photos, was exclusively developed by the Shukang Nutrition Science Team. Clinical studies have shown its accuracy to reach 75%, leading other similar products in China. Related articles were published in Frontiers in Nutrition (IF=6.59) in 2022.
The birth of “Shukang Diet” stems from the helplessness felt by a large number of healthcare professionals and clinical nutritionists in China when managing patients.
Malnutrition has long been a global challenge. The 2018 Global Nutrition Report indicates that malnutrition-related deaths account for 58% of all-cause mortality. Data from the U.S. National Cancer Institute reveal that 80–90% of cancer patients exhibit varying degrees of malnutrition, and 20–40% of cancer patients may die from malnutrition or its associated complications. Studies have demonstrated that providing scientific nutritional support interventions plays a crucial role in improving cure rates, reducing mortality, and minimizing complications.
Although awareness of nutritional therapy among healthcare professionals has improved, and the National Health Commission issued the "Guidelines for the Construction and Management of Clinical Nutrition Departments (Trial)" in 2022, the rate of nutritional diagnosis for hospitalized patients in China remains below one in ten thousand out of nearly 100 million admissions annually. This figure pales in comparison to that of the United States, where nutritional diagnosis rates stand at 40%–50% in surgery, 100% in oncology radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and 40%–80% in pediatrics.
Shortages of clinical dietitians, insufficient nutritional knowledge among general healthcare providers, and difficulties in managing out-of-hospital patients are the primary obstacles hindering the implementation of nutritional diagnosis and treatment in China. Huang Shan, an attending physician in the Department of Oncology at Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, stated in an interview: “Oncology patients at large hospitals often spend only one or two days at the facility per chemotherapy cycle, and those undergoing radiotherapy may see their primary physician only once a week. The few minutes available during outpatient visits are insufficient to complete a nutritional assessment, let alone monitor whether patients are strictly adhering to their prescribed nutritional regimens.”
In the context of a severe imbalance in the ratio of professional dietitians to patients, “Shukang Diet” can save time for medical staff and dietitians while improving patient adherence.
Although various nutritional supplementation methods are currently available in clinical practice, food remains the primary source of nutrition for patients. Therefore, calculating the daily intake of nutrients required from various food sources is a major concern for both patients and clinical dietitians. However, given the wide variety of foods available, it is challenging for anyone to select options that are suitable and fully meet their daily nutritional requirements.
However, with “ShuKang Diet,” the supervising nutritionist can set daily nutritional intake targets based on the patient’s condition. At each meal, a simple scan with a smartphone reveals the nutrient content of the current food and displays the remaining amount of each nutrient to be consumed for the day. This simplified “instruction” eliminates the need for patients to memorize complex nutritional information for various foods, making it easy for individuals of all age groups to follow.
In addition to its nutrient recognition feature, the mini-games in “ShuKang Diet” progressively level up as patients adhere to their nutritional plans, leveraging immersive game-based interactions to enhance patient compliance at a low cost.
In contrast to personalized treatment plans tailored to individual patients based on comprehensive examinations, reports, and diagnoses during the disease diagnosis and treatment process, the “one-size-fits-all” approach in traditional nutritional therapy has limited efficacy in promoting recovery, potentially leading to under-treatment or over-treatment. Therefore, the emergence of digital nutrition aims to assist physicians in efficiently managing patients through scientific nutritional knowledge, thereby enabling precise nutritional therapy. To this end, the Shukang Nutrition Team has established a comprehensive Shukang Nutritional Science System encompassing “assessment and screening, nutritional monitoring, and nutritional interventions.”
In 2022, Shukang collaborated with Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital to compare the screening and assessment results generated by its proprietary “R+ Dietitian” system for 244 hospitalized oncology patients against those conducted by two experienced clinical nutritionists. The study found substantial agreement between the two approaches. These findings indicate that the “R+ Dietitian,” exclusively developed by Shukang’s nutrition team, can replace clinical nutritionists in performing initial nutritional assessments and risk screenings for patients. The results of this study were published in November 2022 in a subsidiary journal of the Journal of Medical Internet Research (IF=7.08).
Compared with traditional assessments and screenings that are physician-led and conducted through one-on-one patient interviews, “R+ Dietitian” is completed independently by patients. This approach increases the time a nutritionist can dedicate to managing each patient by nearly 70% and enables the simultaneous management of 10 patients, thereby significantly improving physicians’ efficiency in patient management.
In addition to the development of digital products, the Shukang Nutrition team is simultaneously conducting research and development on foods for special medical purposes (FSMP). The AAL (Amino-acid-limited formulas) technology, exclusively developed by the Shukang Nutrition team, serves as a nutritional supplement during cancer treatment and can be used in conjunction with PD-1 inhibitors. In the “Trial on the Anti-tumor Effects of Serine Restriction,” conducted in collaboration with West China Hospital of Sichuan University, a patient with nasopharyngeal carcinoma experienced significant tumor shrinkage, even to the point of disappearance, after 10 weeks of AAL plus PD-1 therapy. In comparative mouse studies, the AAL plus PD-1 regimen resulted in marked tumor reduction.
Another RPG (R+PolyGly) technology that can lower the glycemic index (GI) of food can be used in bread, biscuits, cakes, and noodles. It reduces the GI of these foods without altering their texture, or it can be taken with meals to help control postprandial blood glucose levels. A series of comparative studies have shown that RPG technology can reduce the GI of food by 30%–46%, which is good news for individuals requiring blood glucose control, such as those with hyperglycemia or overweight.
With the rapid development of the internet, AI intelligence has permeated every aspect of various industries. Even in the heavily regulated healthcare sector, the landscape has shifted significantly since the emergence of the world’s first FDA-approved digital therapeutic product in the United States in 2017 and China’s first NMPA-approved digital therapeutic product in 2020. Since then, other products have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, attracting major global corporations to enter the field.
Within the broader health and wellness sector, the development of digital medical products is in full swing, while the development of digital nutrition products is also gaining momentum.
“Digital tools” and “nutritional diets” are the two key pillars of nutritional therapy, a trend reflected in major global digital nutrition products: U.S. food company ModifyHealth has established an official website that allows users to consult with nutrition experts via phone or video calls to receive digital health and nutrition plans for improving gastrointestinal conditions, along with home delivery of specialized nutritional meals; Google has partnered with the digital health company NourishedRx to launch a video management platform on Google Cloud, providing users with personalized nutritional support...
Among all nutritional management programs designed for patients or the general public, “digital tools” and “nutritional diets” are indispensable. The research and development of Shukang’s nutrition science system products also centers on these two core elements. Digital tools enhance physicians’ efficiency in patient management, reduce patients’ learning curve, and improve adherence, while nutritional diets optimize the efficacy of clinical medications and provide comprehensive nutritional support for patients.
With years of clinical experience, Dr. Huang Shan has affirmed the importance of nutrition: “Nutritional therapy support not only improves clinical outcomes, enhances quality of life, and extends survival time, but also reduces healthcare costs.” In response to the wave of digital nutrition, China’s National Nutrition Plan (2017–2030) states that by 2030, intelligent applications of “Internet + Nutrition and Health” will be widely promoted to significantly improve nutritional and health status.
The rapid development of nutrition digitalization reflects not only the heightened attention to nutrition by the state and healthcare professionals, but also the awakening of public health awareness. Nevertheless, there is still much work to be done in both clinical nutritional therapy and daily nutritional management.
References:
1. “Global Nutrition Report” 2018
2. National Nutrition Plan (2017–2030)