GE Healthcare China's Yan Hua: The Core of Medical Innovation Lies in Continuously Pushing Boundaries [VB100]

From April 16 to 18, 2021, the “5th Future Healthcare 100” Conference, hosted by VCBeat, co-hosted by the People’s Government of Wujiang District, Suzhou City, and the Guangdong Zhong Nanshan Medical Foundation, with Suzhou Wujiang Oriental State-owned Capital Investment and Operation Co., Ltd. as a supporting organizer, and Alibaba Health as the exclusive strategic partner, was grandly opened in Wujiang, Suzhou.

More than 3,000 participants registered for this conference, which featured three main forums: the Future Healthcare Trends Summit, the Future Healthcare Strategy Summit, and the International Healthcare Innovation Summit, along with 15 specialized forums: the Forum on Personalized Diagnosis and Treatment, the Forum on Health Insurance Technology and Commercial Health Insurance, the Forum on Innovative Practices in Primary Care, the Digital Healthcare Innovation Forum, the Forum on Digital Marketing for Pharmaceutical Companies, the Forum on the Development of High-Value Consumables, the Forum on Innovative Development of Internet Hospitals, the Forum on Translation of Scientific Achievements and Industrial Development, the Forum on the Development of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Industry, the Forum on Data Intelligence and Innovative Growth, the Forum on Innovative Development of Smart Hospitals, the Healthcare Management Innovation Forum, the Forum on Digital Drug R&D (ITBT), the Medical Industry Innovation Forum, and the Forum on Early Cancer Screening. These sessions covered more than ten hot sectors from 2020 to 2021.

 Yan Hua, Vice President of GE Healthcare China and Chief Marketing Officer

At the Future Healthcare Strategy Summit held on the morning of April 17, Yan Hua, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of GE Healthcare China, delivered a keynote speech titled “China’s Digital + Healthcare Innovation Prescription: Comprehensive Localization, Digital Empowerment, and Win-Win Cooperation.” He shared insights on healthcare innovation and highlighted GE Healthcare’s outstanding performance in China during the pandemic control period. This article presents a curated compilation of his key remarks.

In the healthcare sector, we must identify where the needs lie and in which scenarios they arise; then, we can drive medical innovation and invention based on these specific scenarios.

Throughout GE’s centuries-long history, we have achieved numerous “firsts”: the first light bulb, the first phonograph, the first X-ray machine, and more. We are also home to two Nobel laureates who drove revolutionary advances in medical imaging.

We are strategically transforming ourselves into a quintessential model of the new generation of Chinese enterprises, as GE Healthcare has been an integral part of China’s century-long development history. In 1935, portable X-ray machines from GE Healthcare were carried on horseback during the Red Army’s Long March, providing diagnostic capabilities for injured soldiers. In 1979, the inaugural year of China’s Reform and Opening-Up policy, our healthcare business began its deep engagement in the Chinese market. In 1990, GE Healthcare established a joint venture with China’s Ministry of Aerospace Industry and Ministry of Health, founding “GE Hangwei Medical Systems Co., Ltd.” as a manufacturing facility focused on CT scanners. After three decades of development, this “CT” legacy has flourished: today, two out of every three GE Healthcare CT systems produced worldwide are manufactured at our Beijing factory.

GE HealthCare will stand firmly with China through innovative technologies. We are committed to bringing global innovations to China and sharing Chinese innovations with the world.

2021 marked the inaugural year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, during which the Two Sessions further clarified the plan’s objectives and long-range goals through 2035: driving innovation-led development across the healthcare industry, accelerating the growth of digital health, and continuously advancing the Healthy China initiative. For instance, the plan calls for building 5G-based application scenarios and ecosystems, improving databases, and accelerating data sharing among medical institutions; it also promotes the adoption of telemedicine, AI-assisted medical image interpretation, and clinical decision support systems.

For years, the core of medical innovation has been about continuously pushing boundaries. When people think about innovation, the first thing that comes to mind is products.Innovation of the Product ItselfIt is undoubtedly the most important. GE Healthcare’s technological innovation stems from its products and the technologies themselves.

Secondly,Scenario InnovationTechnology must be applicable to specific scenarios. For example, during the pandemic control efforts last year, our two Deep Sky Eye CT scanners were deployed at Leishenshan Hospital, where they played a significant role. This CT equipment features a highly innovative AI-powered automatic positioning system called “Deep Sky Eye,” which enables zero-contact, separate-room operation between medical staff and patients. It offers one-click automatic positioning and intelligent centering, producing clearer and more precise CT images. The automatic positioning recognition technology is similar to the facial recognition technology commonly seen in daily life. We identified a new need for this mature technology in the medical field and brought it to the forefront of healthcare applications. Particularly during the rapid spread of the epidemic, the ability to maintain zero contact between medical staff and patients was a critically important application that helped avoid the risk of cross-infection.

Over the past eight months, we have continuously iterated our Deepwise Tianyan CT Noah Series solutions. The key to these iterations lies in adapting to different applications across varying temporal scenarios. During the first half of the year, amidst the anti-epidemic efforts, we required a flexible and rapid mobile cabin solution deployed on-site to meet the high-volume scanning needs of patients. In the second half, as epidemic prevention and control entered a stable phase, we needed solutions capable of facilitating rapid patient triage, offering flexible mobility, integrating peacetime and emergency operations, and enabling real-time remote collaboration. Under normalized prevention and control conditions, our technological evolution has become an integral part of the hospital’s overall treatment system, such as in fever clinics and vehicle-mounted solutions. This reflects our continuous scenario-based innovation driven by clinical applications.

Finally,Cross-Border InnovationGE Healthcare is the first medical device company to establish an e-commerce flagship store on JD.com in China. We engage in both B2B and B2C businesses, continuously pushing beyond our traditional boundaries. We aim to transform from a traditional medical device company centered on equipment into an enterprise driven by technological innovation, scenario-based innovation, and business model innovation.

No matter how complex our digital healthcare solutions are, the core focus must remain on: how to diagnose more cases with limited resources, how much treatment time is saved, and how many patient lives are rescued. If these measures improve the operational efficiency of the health system, then the solution is considered successful.

From GE’s perspective, the pathway to enhancing medical services and improving treatment efficiency lies in precision diagnosis. In China, we have established the GE Healthcare Precision Medicine Institute to explore next-generation diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. The Chinese government has consistently advocated for innovation in cutting-edge technologies. Accordingly, the GE Healthcare Precision Medicine Institute develops AI software by studying the biomolecules underlying advanced diseases, thereby achieving integrated diagnosis and treatment that truly serves the therapeutic end and enhances treatment efficiency.

“Precision” is of paramount importance for enhancing primary healthcare capabilities and advancing the tiered diagnosis and treatment system. Effective pathways to promote this system include continuously innovative intelligent technologies, comprehensive reach through telemedicine solutions, and improvements in efficiency and quality control enabled by digital health technologies. GE has been deeply engaged in the primary healthcare sector for many years. Over the past decade-plus, 70% of the more than 80 products innovatively launched by GE Healthcare China have been tailored specifically for primary care applications and solutions. Currently, even 5G-enabled mobile intelligent screening vehicles have reached a high level of maturity. GE Healthcare has conducted pilot programs in Shanghai and several other provinces and cities, truly implementing these solutions to bridge the “last mile.” By leveraging mobile solutions to reduce physical distance to zero—allowing physicians to serve patients without being physically present—we are witnessing a core trend that will shape the future of healthcare development, particularly at the primary care level.

Finally, GE Healthcare’s strategy in China is also very simple: comprehensive localization, digital empowerment, and win-win cooperation.

Fully Domestic: Over the past four decades of reform and opening-up, we have established four production bases and five factories in China, spanning from Beijing and Shanghai to Tianjin and Wuxi. Our medical device manufacturing portfolio covers a comprehensive range of products, including CT scanners, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, ultrasound devices, ventilators, and anesthesia machines. This robust infrastructure is why GE Healthcare was able to rapidly develop and implement context-specific solutions during the pandemic, thereby strengthening our core competitiveness.

Digital Empowerment: This is a key strategy for GE Healthcare, featuring a three-tier structure—Intelligent Devices, Intelligent Management, and Intelligent Clinical Care.

Win-Win Cooperation: We hope that stakeholders both within and outside the healthcare industry—whether AI companies, therapeutic firms, or even internet enterprises—will engage in necessary and robust collaboration. We believe that future boundaries will be increasingly blurred, and that no single company can provide comprehensive solutions for patients and physicians alone. Particularly amid the vigorous trends observed during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, we aspire to work together with all partners to advance medical innovation and healthcare services to the next stage.