How Digital Therapeutics Realizes Patient-Centered Care: An Amazon Web Services Perspective

With the rise and increasing maturity of mobile internet, digital products are transforming our lives in every aspect. The healthcare sector is no exception. Leveraging advancements in digital technology, scenarios once confined to future visions—such as internet-based healthcare and smart hospitals—are becoming reality one by one. Beyond these, another scenario previously considered futuristic is gradually materializing: patients can now download an app prescribed by their physicians for disease treatment. Software is emerging as a therapeutic modality, either as a standalone intervention or in combination with traditional pharmaceuticals, thereby delivering more efficient and widely accessible diagnosis and treatment services. This is what the entire industry is closely focusing on as “Digital Therapeutics (DTx).”

Its most prominent feature is the demonstration of clinical safety and efficacy based on clinical evidence, requiring certification and approval from domestic and international drug regulatory authorities. Currently, two distinct types of digital therapeutics have emerged, derived by researchers leveraging advanced technologies and devices to enhance clinical treatment. The first type extends the value of traditional pharmacotherapy; for example, it employs companion software to provide medication adherence management and personalized treatment recommendations, thereby helping patients manage their conditions, including reminders for medication timing and dosage. The second type serves as a substitute for traditional pharmaceuticals, such as using tablets to deliver sensory stimulation for the treatment of insomnia or depression.

The core value of digital therapeutics lies in addressing the major pain points of traditional chronic disease management—such as time, space, cost, personalization, and efficacy—through evidence-based medicine and innovative digital technologies. Patient-centric digital healthcare leverages software to enhance clinical value and, by integrating cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT), will usher in a transformative new era in digital medicine.

The pandemic has hindered clinical trials for digital therapeutics. How can digital platforms be leveraged to achieve comprehensive connectivity and accelerate the progress of clinical research among enterprises, research centers, and patients?

How can we enhance the patient experience, reduce their technological burden, and ensure the security of patient data in terms of user experience and safety compliance?

How Can Digital Therapeutics Companies Enhance Product Standardization and Intelligence, Reduce Operational Team Size, and Control Commercial Costs?

How Do Different Digital Therapeutics Companies Prefer to Choose Among Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, and Multi-Cloud?

To focus on the current cloud-based applications and challenges in the field of digital therapeutics,VCBeat to Partner with Amazon Web Services, inviteZhilan Health, Qianglian Zhichuang, Xinjing Technology, Kelai Shi Biotechand other enterprises, hosted an online roundtable discussion titled [How Digital Therapeutics Can Make “Patient-Centricity” a Reality], aiming to spark insights into the new transformations and breakthroughs that cloud services bring to information management and operations in digital therapeutics companies.

Gao Yunlong | General Manager, Zhilan Health

Secretary-General of the IoT Healthcare Branch of the Non-Public Medical Association, alumnus of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, and honored with the title of “Outstanding Leading Talent in Artificial Intelligence” by the Chinese Society for Medical Artificial Intelligence.

Serial entrepreneur in the digital health industry, with extensive experience in entrepreneurship, management, marketing, and corporate financing and investment. Member of the expert advisory group for digital therapeutics policy formulation in Zhejiang Province and Hainan Province; repeatedly invited to attend internal working meetings on the development of industry standards and policies for digital therapeutics in both provinces. Well-versed in domestic and international regulations, standards, and development trends in the digital therapeutics industry.

Liu Wenzhe | Founder and CEO, UnionStrong Intelligence

Pioneer and industry leader in integrated AI solutions for stroke diagnosis and treatment, practitioner of intelligent stroke therapy, Founder and CEO of StrongLink Intelligence.

Previously held positions at multinational corporations such as Bayer and Johnson & Johnson; served as National Sales Manager for the Neurosurgery Division of Johnson & Johnson China. Possesses nearly 20 years of experience in sales management, key account management, channel management, and market development within the neurosurgery pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, along with six years of entrepreneurial management experience. Pioneering a new paradigm in intelligent diagnosis and treatment of stroke, demonstrating proactive innovation and empowering teams. Committed to building a globally leading intelligent healthcare enterprise and enhancing the global leadership and influence of China’s stroke diagnosis and treatment capabilities.

Cao Qun | Chairman and General Manager, Xinjing Technology

Founder, Chairman, and General Manager of Hangzhou Xinjing Technology Co., Ltd. With over 30 years of experience in the medical industry, he has held key positions at Edan Instruments (300206.SZ) and other smart medical device companies, accumulating extensive management expertise and rich resources in the healthcare sector. He embarked on his entrepreneurial journey during his graduate studies, building his own team through continuous exploration and steadfastly pursuing his ideals and goals.

Chen Hang | Founder & CEO, Kelaishi Biotech

Master of Medicine, Founder of Kelai Shi. Selected for the 2019 Forbes China 30 Under 30 list. Recipient of first place in the China Division of the GSVC Global Social Venture Competition, the National Gold Award for “Star of Social Enterprise Creation,” and the National Gold Award in the “Challenge Cup” Entrepreneurship Plan Competition. The team founded by him was honored with the title of “Xiaoping Science and Technology Innovation Team,” named after Deng Xiaoping. He has led the application for more than ten national and provincial-level research projects and filed over twenty patents. Additionally, he serves as a professional due diligence consultant for multiple investment institutions.

Li Jian | Chief Business Director, Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry, Greater China, Amazon Web Services

Dr. Li Jian earned his doctorate from Peking University and currently serves as the Chief Healthcare Industry Director for Greater China at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he oversees digital innovation, industry solutions, and strategic partnerships in the fields of medical devices, innovative pharmaceuticals, and life sciences. Previously, Dr. Li was the Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences for the Asia-Pacific region at Intel Corporation, responsible for businesses related to healthcare artificial intelligence, precision medicine, and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). He also spent over a decade working on innovation and emerging market strategies at leading healthcare companies such as Medtronic, Siemens, and Philips, where he led the product development and global launch of Emprint, Medtronic’s flagship minimally invasive oncology surgery product. In 2019, he served as the editor-in-chief of the book Precision Medicine: The New Trend in Future Healthcare.

Hangzhou Zhilan Health Co., Ltd. was established in 2015. The name “Zhilan Health” is derived from the Confucian classic Kongzi Jiayu (The School Sayings of Confucius), which states, “Zhi and lan orchids grow in secluded valleys; they do not cease to be fragrant simply because no one is there to appreciate them.” True to its name, Zhilan Health initially supported the public welfare initiative “Project for Zero Mother-to-Child Transmission of Hepatitis B,” starting with the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B and strategically positioning itself in the field of digital healthcare for chronic disease management.

Upon its establishment in 2015, Zhilan Health collaborated with the China Hepatitis Prevention and Control Foundation and Professor Hou Jinlin’s team at Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University to develop the “Xiao Beike” APP. The following year, it submitted an application for medical device registration, which was successfully approved in 2019, making Zhilan Health one of the first digital therapeutics companies to obtain a medical device software registration certificate.

As of December 31, 2019, the Xiaobeike App achieved its “Hundreds, Thousands, and Ten Thousands” target, covering all 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across China, including Tibet and Qinghai. By February 2021, a total of 136 hospitals had participated in the project, with more than 1,500 registered physicians, benefiting over 37,000 pregnant women with hepatitis B and their families.

QiangLian ZhiChuang (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. was established in September 2016. It is a high-tech company that applies AI and big data to the precision diagnosis and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases. The company focuses on the vertical sector of intelligent diagnosis and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases in China, committed to achieving intelligent diagnosis and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases through digital technologies. Its products provide intelligent assistance across the entire diagnosis and treatment workflow for multiple conditions, including hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke.

Currently, QiangLian ZhiChuang® has become China’s largest intelligent diagnosis and treatment platform for stroke, working in close collaboration with the nation’s top neurological clinical centers—including Xuanwu Hospital, Tiantan Hospital, Changhai Hospital, and Huashan Hospital—to provide intelligent, full-course services for stroke patients, spanning screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.

QiangLian ZhiChuang® has developed a range of intelligent auxiliary products that cover the entire disease course of various hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke conditions. Addressing critical pain points in treatment, these solutions extend upstream to diagnosis and screening, and downstream to patient follow-up, ultimately achieving intelligent assisted diagnosis and treatment across the full disease continuum. Among these, the intracranial aneurysm surgical planning software is QiangLian ZhiChuang®’s first flagship product.

Xinjing Technology, established in August 2016, is a developer of VR-based digital therapeutic medical solutions for psychiatric and psychological care. The company is dedicated to providing comprehensive medical solutions for rehabilitation training in the fields of neurology and mental health by leveraging virtual reality (VR) technology, internet cloud platforms, and big data analytics. By integrating VR, motion capture, artificial intelligence, and big data with traditional clinical treatment and rehabilitation approaches for psychiatric, psychological, and brain function disorders, and through modular development, the company has created a portfolio of clinical rehabilitation products, including hypnotic relaxation and stress reduction, physical motor rehabilitation, attention training for children, and cognitive training for the elderly.

Its digital therapeutic (DTx) training system for mental health is applicable to departments of neurology, psychosomatic medicine, sleep specialties, and psychiatry, serving as a treatment and adjunctive therapy for insomnia disorder, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and various anxiety responses. Based on virtual reality technology, clinical expert practices, and psychological research, the system constructs numerous high-quality immersive VR scenarios to help patients relax their mind and body, uplift their mood, alleviate stress, facilitate easy onset of sleep, and improve sleep quality. It features multiple digital therapeutic modules, including music therapy, hypnotherapy, and mindfulness-based therapy, along with real-time monitoring of vital parameters such as EEG, enabling precise analysis of sleep.

Currently, Xinjing Technology’s mental health digital therapeutic (DTx) training system has been deployed as an adjunctive therapy in nearly 100 Grade A tertiary general hospitals across China, offering complementary benefits to traditional treatment regimens.

Therefore, guided by the vision of “building foundational eye care and eliminating avoidable visual impairment and blindness,” the team has leveraged its professional strengths—specifically, the seamless integration of ophthalmology and optometry—to embed this approach into its corporate culture and core business strategy. It has established three key components: offline terminal service centers, a skills training school, and internet-based industry tools, all working in concert to drive industry progress and empower practitioners.

After 12 years of development, the team was honored as a national-level “Xiaoping Science and Technology Innovation Team,” named after Deng Xiaoping. It has won gold awards in national-level student extracurricular academic project competitions and entrepreneurship contests organized by the Communist Youth League Central Committee and the Ministry of Education. In the field of social innovation, the team secured first place in the China division of the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) and received the National Gold Award for “Star of Social Innovation.” Additionally, founder Chen Hang was listed in the 2019 Forbes China 30 Under 30.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the pioneer and leader in global cloud computing, renowned across the industry for over 15 years for its continuous innovation, technological leadership, comprehensive service offerings, and broad adoption. AWS supports virtually any workload in the cloud. Currently, AWS offers more than 200 fully featured services spanning compute, storage, networking, databases, analytics, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid cloud, virtual reality and augmented reality, media, as well as application development, deployment, and management. Its infrastructure spans 84 Availability Zones across 26 geographic regions, with plans to add 8 new Regions and 24 additional Availability Zones. Millions of customers worldwide—from startups and small and medium-sized enterprises to large enterprises and government institutions—trust AWS. Globally, AWS serves more than 4,200 healthcare and life sciences customers, empowering them to strengthen their infrastructure, enhance agility, reduce costs, accelerate innovation, improve competitiveness, and achieve business growth and success through its services.

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