Building a New Digital Healthcare Ecosystem: Insights and Solutions from Over 80 Industry Leaders

“If digitalization is the future we firmly believe in, then how exactly should we define the digitalization of healthcare?”

“What does digitalization truly mean for multinational corporations (MNCs)? Why is it necessary to systematically study patient engagement, and why shift toward a patient-centric approach?”

“During the process of building a new ecosystem, what core elements need to be established and what challenges need to be addressed?”

At the inaugural Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Digital Healthcare Industry Alliance Conference and the unveiling ceremony of the Tianjin Binhai–Zhongguancun Digital Healthcare Industrial Park held on the 28th, more than 80 participating digital healthcare companies attempted to offer their own answers to several pressing questions facing all digital healthcare entrepreneurs, innovators, and policymakers.

According to Li Xiarong, founder of Judao Technology, which focuses on building a precision medicine data platform centered on medical genetics, a highly significant benefit of digitalization lies in providing solutions for clinical workflows and enhancing efficiency.

“Digitalization is an inevitable trend in medical innovation, ranging from the optimization of healthcare supply and demand through internet-based medical services, to the streamlining of internal hospital workflows on an informatization foundation, and evolving into a digital management system based on systems biology that covers the entire lifecycle from in-hospital diagnosis and treatment to out-of-hospital prevention and rehabilitation.” Xie Wen, founder of Lulutong and appointed Chief Operating Officer of the Digital Medical Industrial Park, believes that digitalization represents a paradigm shift in healthcare. For instance, consumer consensus on the use of digital tools is gradually taking shape; evidence-based digital therapeutics (DTx) innovation projects, initially focused on mental health, have expanded to cover nearly all disease treatment areas, including oncology, pain management, and chronic disease management. Government regulatory policies are also responding rapidly to these developments. Taking digital therapeutics as an example, by November 2022, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) had issued a total of 30 Class II medical device certificates that meet the definition of digital therapeutics.

As a leading provider of data infrastructure services, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a suite of data solutions for the healthcare industry. Li Jian, Chief Director of the Healthcare Industry for Greater China at AWS, believes that further development in digital health requires breakthroughs across multiple dimensions—including data governance standards, data ownership rights, and regulatory policies—to clarify the direction for innovation and remove various obstacles.

Precisely because it is new, exploration is required. Precisely because it is new, collaboration across the upstream and downstream value chain is essential.

As a critical question to address, how can the key elements for problem-solving be structured? The industrial park aims to attract and gather leading innovative forces by establishing a Digital Healthcare Industry Alliance. “We hope to achieve the goal of clustering 200 digital innovation enterprises in Tianjin within five years, forming the largest digital healthcare industry cluster in North China and a domestically leading demonstration base for digital healthcare,” said Xie Wen. He noted that challenges faced by digital innovation enterprises in areas such as regulatory approval, certification, and commercialization may require greater collaborative efforts among companies.

Xie Wen stated that the focus is on carrying out specialized operations within three major industrial clusters: “digital therapeutics, internet hospitals, and high-end medical devices,” while accelerating the development of the digital healthcare industry in key areas such as biotechnology, medical services, innovative devices, genetic testing, biopharmaceuticals, and insurance-linked health checkups. In addition to providing one-stop, ready-to-move-in basic services, the industrial park leverages a professional team with deep expertise in the healthcare sector to help enterprises rapidly obtain product registration certificates for digital therapeutics and high-end medical devices, as well as Class A or Class C internet hospital licenses. To date, it has assisted in completing the application process for over 50 internet hospital licenses.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Park Service Platform provides comprehensive services to enterprises in areas such as expedited patent grants, priority approval (including priority inspection, priority review, priority verification of registration system compliance, and priority clinical trial inspection), the Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) system (allowing cross-regional or off-site contracted manufacturing), expedited approval for products from other provinces or overseas entering Tianjin, CXO (CRO/CDO/CMO/CSO) services, and industrial park funds. Leveraging Tianjin’s advantageous conditions—including specialized medical resources, biopharmaceutical resources, and medical insurance policies—the platform supports enterprises in scientific research and innovation by providing policy support.

Currently, 50 companies, including Hengrui Medicine, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, Yunnan Baiyao, Hansoh Pharmaceutical, Chia Tai Tianqing, Airdoc, Genetron Health, LifeHub, LinkDoc, and Chengyi Jiaren, have established their presence in the industrial park. During this event, 15 companies, including Cigna & CMB, UBRAIN, Haoxinqing, Julu Medical, Mingzhi Medical, Suosi Medical, Mijian, Hanyi Online, Qiezi Health, Xiaoshu Health, and Yingdong Intelligence, expressed their intention to sign agreements for settlement in the park.

The establishment of this alliance has attracted more than 80 enterprises to participate, including Lulutong Health, VCBeat, Yide Haokang, Tuoxin Health, Yunnan Baiyao Group, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Jiankang Huamei, Shunwei Capital, Pashanhu Society, Hansoh Pharmaceutical, LinkDoc Technology, Genetron Health, Caideni Medical, and Yuanxin Technology.

With the enhanced capability to acquire large-scale multimodal data and derive insights from it, complex biological questions are being transformed into computational problems. This shift promises rational design of optimal solutions tailored to specific challenges. As Dr. Afeyan, founder of Flagship Pioneering, posits, replacing traditional trial-and-error approaches with deterministic computational and biological platforms will truly unlock our imagination.

The ultimate goal of digitalization is to enable us to truly see each individual. Tianjin’s current efforts may be aggregating innovative practices from the business community at a granular level, fostering a consensus on transformation.