Deepwise Dr.Wise® Cloud Powers Innovative Smart Medical Consortium Model

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University was honored with the “Smart Service Innovation Award” at the 2019 National Healthcare AI Innovation Awards. The hospital’s medical consortium project, jointly established with four primary care institutions including the Pan’an County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Zhejiang Province, stood out from hundreds of implemented projects across China and ultimately emerged as the winner. The award ceremony was held on November 23 during the 2019 Digital Medicine Summit Forum, with cloud support for the project provided by DeepWise Intelligent Imaging Cloud.

According to publicly available data from the National Health Commission of China, the development of medical consortiums has been fully rolled out across the country. In 2019, with the continued advancement of tiered diagnosis and treatment, various regions further consolidated the construction of medical consortiums, forming distinct models with their own unique characteristics.

The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University is a large Grade 3A hospital in Zhejiang Province. As a tertiary hospital within the medical consortium, it connects with four primary care institutions, including the Pan’an County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, providing image-based telemedicine services to these grassroots facilities. It stands as one of the key demonstration projects for medical consortiums in Zhejiang. Over a year ago, the hospital introduced DeepWise’s Dr.Wise® Cloud intelligent imaging platform, achieving cloud-based connectivity with its affiliated primary care hospitals. By leveraging advanced artificial intelligence technologies, the hospital has played a significant role in the development of the three-tier diagnostic and treatment system within the medical consortium. This initiative has extended high-quality medical resources to primary care institutions, enabling resource sharing and complementary advantages, thereby improving the overall quality of medical services at the grassroots level and ultimately benefiting patients in these communities.

DeepWise Dr.Wise®Cloud Intelligent Imaging Cloud

Dr. Qian Qi, Director of the Radiology Department, stated in an interview with reporters, “We have collaborated with DeepWise for over a year. Through the Intelligent Imaging Cloud Platform, we have established a rapid communication channel between our hospital and subordinate primary care institutions. Patients’ imaging data can be immediately transmitted to tertiary hospitals for consultation, thereby buying valuable time for emergency treatment. Just a few nights ago, I received a request for consultation on a nighttime emergency case from Pan’an County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The patient was a male in his forties who presented with dizziness after alcohol consumption. The primary care physician was uncertain about the diagnosis after the initial examination and uploaded the brain CT images to the cloud platform for consultation. After logging in via my mobile phone to review the images, I identified it as a case of cerebral hemorrhage. Since Pan’an County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine lacked the specialized department to manage this condition, the county hospital immediately activated its emergency response mechanism upon confirmation of the diagnosis and transferred the patient to an appropriate facility for treatment.”

As this was an atypical case of intracerebral hemorrhage, the consequences would have been dire without the advanced capabilities and convenience offered by the AI platform. This exemplifies how innovative technologies are reshaping our daily work. From a physician’s perspective, AI-assisted diagnosis provides additional reference data to support clinical decision-making. Moreover, more accessible integration methods serve as a prerequisite for efficient and rapid communication between tertiary and primary hospitals within medical consortiums. For patients in Zhejiang Province, where digital healthcare initiatives have been vigorously promoted, innovative technologies have been applied across all hospital processes to achieve the goal of “visiting the hospital no more than once.” For instance, Zhejiang has implemented relevant pricing policies for services such as cloud-based film storage. Patients can retrieve their medical imaging data via a QR code for use in future hospital transfers or further treatment, significantly saving time and costs.

Director Qian Qi, Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University

After acknowledging the current role of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector, Director Qian Qi also offered some perspectives on future technological developments. He stated, “Innovative technologies like artificial intelligence are highly effective in optimizing processes and improving efficiency within the healthcare field. Such improvements not only contribute to the smart development of hospitals but ultimately benefit patients. Optimized processes and enhanced efficiency enable patients to reduce both the time and cost associated with medical consultations, truly realizing the goal of ‘one visit for complete care.’”

DeepWise’s Dr.Wise® Cloud Intelligent Imaging Cloud provides imaging cloud storage services, imaging cloud AI services, mobile image viewing services, remote medical services for medical consortia, cloud-based data management services, and electronic film services. It establishes medical consortia linking upper- and lower-tier hospitals, offering cross-institutional and cross-regional online tiered diagnosis and treatment services. This enables interconnectivity among patients, expert physician resources, and AI service resources, optimizing the utilization of medical resources and significantly improving the healthcare experience for patients at primary care facilities.

Currently, DeepWise has partnered with numerous hospitals across China to build medical consortiums. In addition to the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, its collaboration with Shanghai Chest Hospital on the “Intelligent Cloud System for Three-Tier Diagnosis and Treatment” has been designated as a demonstration project in Shanghai. As early as 2013, Shanghai Chest Hospital, in conjunction with the Xuhui District Health Commission, launched a project titled “Large-Scale Standardized Early Screening for Lung Cancer Using Low-Dose Spiral CT” in six communities within the district: Tianlin, Fenglin, Xietu, Kangjian, Caohejing, and Xujiahui. Since the adoption of the Dr. Wise® AI-assisted medical diagnostic system, the advantages of artificial intelligence have helped the hospital accelerate the process of image interpretation and screening. Meanwhile, a tiered referral pathway has been established: initial screening via chest radiography at community health centers, confirmatory diagnosis via chest CT at district-level hospitals, and final referral of severe cases to Shanghai Chest Hospital. By the summer of 2019, two rounds of screening had been successfully completed, benefiting over 30,000 residents. Among those screened, more than 8,000 were identified as high-risk for lung cancer. Fifty-two patients with highly suspected diagnoses underwent surgical treatment, achieving favorable therapeutic outcomes, with a 100% five-year survival rate among patients with early-stage lung cancer.

Shanghai Chest Hospital Conducts Lung Cancer Screening

Artificial intelligence continues to innovate in the healthcare sector, constantly expanding into new application scenarios. DeepWise remains true to its original mission, continuously exploring the development of healthcare informatization and intelligent systems. The company develops AI products closely aligned with clinical needs, designed to align seamlessly with physicians’ workflows, thereby supporting clinical diagnosis and treatment. By leveraging AI to empower primary care institutions within the national medical consortium framework, DeepWise facilitates the implementation of tiered diagnosis and treatment systems, further advancing the Healthy China initiative.