From WE Tech to ME Medicine: Tencent Aims to Build the Encyclopedia of Medical Knowledge

“Brain degeneration is irreversible; dementia in the elderly is incurable!”

“Younger patients with lupus erythematosus have a higher mortality rate.”

“Child with congenital heart disease? Only a heart transplant can save their life!”

“Being diagnosed with leukemia is equivalent to a death sentence.”

“AIDS is the terminal disease of the century! It’s incurable!”

“Depression is not a disease; eating more sweets will make you happy.”

……

At some point in the past, the aforementioned statements may have been true; however, as of today, these former “truths” have become mere rumors. Yet for an average person, distinguishing the authenticity of such information remains exceedingly difficult.

The impact of medical information asymmetry on an individual is no less significant than that of financial information asymmetry. While poor investment decisions resulting from the latter can often be remedied, a cancer patient who firmly believes that cancer is an incurable disease or who abandons modern medical treatment in favor of unproven folk remedies may pay the ultimate price—their life.

Therefore, in the internet era, an authoritative, practical, and comprehensive encyclopedia of health knowledge is particularly important. This is the original intention behind Tencent Medical Dictionary’s science popularization efforts, as well as the driving force behind Tencent’s hosting of the Medical ME Conference. Let us examine the importance of science popularization through several examples from the Medical ME Conference.

“My daily routine is extremely unhealthy, and I believe many young people are the same. Much of our inspiration and emotional expression comes at night; we consider this our lifestyle. Changing it would mean changing ourselves, so we are reluctant to do so.”

Qiu Chen, a well-known debater on the show "I Can I BB," had always maintained this attitude toward her life until she learned that she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Within the first hour of learning about her condition, she immediately began researching “What Should I Pay Attention to Before and After Surgery?” As she gradually gained a better understanding of cancer, she realized that a cancer diagnosis does not equate to a death sentence. With modern medical advances, many patients with early-stage cancer can be cured, and even those with advanced-stage disease can significantly prolong their survival through appropriate treatment.

Thanks to a positive mindset, early detection, and the advantages of advanced medical technology, Qiu Chen’s condition was gradually cured. This experience also made her realize the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and acquiring effective medical knowledge. “I abandoned my past unhealthy habits and gained a new lease on life. Perhaps this reflects the common Chinese saying that people often fail to change until they face dire consequences,” Qiu Chen told VCBeat in an interview.

Undoubtedly, Qiu Chen is fortunate, but not every cancer patient is so lucky or possesses the courage to confront cancer head-on.

Tibor Kovacs, President of the European Society of Surgical Oncology, discussed the heterogeneity among cancers in an interview at the Tencent Medical ME Conference: “Many women discover breast cancer through self-examination; palpating a breast lump motivates them to seek further evaluation. However, most other cancers are not detectable by touch.”

Therefore, routine screening is the only way to spare more patients from the ravages of cancer or to ensure they receive appropriate treatment at an early stage. Public science education serves as the driving force behind screening and prevention efforts—only by understanding cancer can we better prevent and combat it.

At the Tencent Medical ME Conference, Li Taisheng, Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, debunked another myth: HIV/AIDS is not a death sentence; like hypertension, it has become a chronic disease that is preventable and treatable.

Since the first case of AIDS in China was identified at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the harm inflicted by AIDS has extended beyond mere immune deficiency to encompass profound psychological fear—a fear that has shifted from being directed at the disease itself to being directed at affected populations.

Li Taisheng stated in his speech, “In 2003, the case fatality rate of AIDS in China was 22.8%; this figure had dropped to 3.1% by 2014, and was even lower in 2017. From 2003 to the present, the case fatality rate of AIDS in China has decreased by 86%.”

“These achievements stem from China’s emphasis on HIV/AIDS prevention. From the identification of the first AIDS patient in 1985, to the issuance of the first national standards for AIDS treatment in 1995, and further to the implementation of the national free-treatment policy in 2003, the country’s various initiatives have played an extremely important role in curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS in China.”

“Nowadays, patients with HIV/AIDS can survive for a long time thanks to treatment. However, the biggest challenge lies in misconceptions. Many members of the public, and even some doctors, still react with extreme fear to HIV/AIDS, regarding it as a ‘super tumor’ and an incurable disease. Some even mistakenly believe that sharing meals with patients or casual airborne contact can transmit the virus, which is entirely incorrect. HIV is transmitted only through three routes: unprotected high-risk sexual behavior, mother-to-child transmission, and blood exposure. There are no other modes of transmission.”

Therefore, from the current perspective, there is an urgent need for a channel to disseminate accurate information about HIV/AIDS to a broader patient population, so as to eliminate societal discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and ensure that those affected receive appropriate treatment from the outset.

In general, scientific advancement is the first step toward eliminating the threat of HIV/AIDS to humanity, while ensuring that such advancements are widely disseminated constitutes the second. If more patients can receive appropriate treatment during the early stages of infection, the mortality rate associated with HIV/AIDS will be further reduced.

Mental illness is a condition we often overlook. Unlike the physical diseases discussed above, it leads to a significant number of violent deaths.

In the 1990s, suicide once became the fifth leading cause of death in China, and even the leading cause of death among adolescents. Due to a lack of societal understanding, suicide has consistently struggled to become an issue of broad consensus.

At the ME Conference, Fei Lipeng (Michael Phillips), Director of the Crisis Intervention Research Office at the Shanghai Mental Health Center and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Clinical Epidemiology at Columbia University in the United States, found after studying suicide data from China and abroad that, driven by urbanization in China, the agricultural population decreased by 200 to 300 million from 1990 to 2015, and China’s suicide rate declined accordingly. The reason is evident from the data: nearly 60% of all suicides in China were due to pesticide ingestion, and “urbanization has made it less easy for more people to access pesticides.”

However, as urbanization shifts toward metropolitan development, this downward trend is stabilizing, indicating that traditional suicide intervention models are gradually losing their effectiveness. Professor Fei Lipeng posits that suicide is determined by a confluence of external influences, cultural factors, interpersonal networks, social identity, biological and psychological conditions, individual demographics and stressors, socioeconomic environments, and sociopolitical factors. Addressing current challenges requires the construction of a dynamic, multifactorial model for suicide intervention and prevention.

Therefore, both physicians and individuals should confront the issue of suicide squarely and understand the underlying factors, so that targeted interventions can be implemented to address this often-overlooked problem.

At the end of his speech, Professor Fei Lipeng also presented a set of data: “Among all violent deaths, suicides account for 87% of the total. We have devoted substantial resources to preventing non-suicide violent acts, but is our prevention of suicide truly sufficient?”

So, why is Tencent developing a medical encyclopedia product centered on science popularization? Zhang Meng, Vice President of Tencent Healthcare, made the following remarks at the conference.

“The internet is a major source of medical information for the general public. According to a survey by Penguin Intelligence, there were over 40,000 health and medical self-media accounts in China in recent years, with weekly readership exceeding one million and daily search volume for health-related questions reaching 60 million. However, in the past, online medical content was often of mixed quality, with much of it produced by non-professionals who simply compiled materials from unverified sources.”

On one hand, "article-spinning" style popular science poses significant hazards to public health. There have been cases where individuals, suffering from persistent low-grade fever and relying solely on online information, self-diagnosed with terminal illnesses and committed suicide. Others have missed the optimal window for treatment due to misinformation. On the other hand, bad money drives out good; many professional physicians, striving to maintain their integrity, are reluctant to disseminate their expertise via the internet.

Under such circumstances, internet-based medical science popularization is undergoing a reshaping. By featuring authoritative physicians as authors, centering on cutting-edge knowledge, upholding professionalism as its core principle, and grounding itself in rational thinking, it aims to make genuine medical science accessible to the public and enhance individuals’ self-management of their health.

Technological innovation can drive medical progress; likewise, we need a platform to sustain these advances and make them accessible to more patients.

So, what does Tencent hope to gain? Zhang Meng did not provide an answer at the meeting.

Traffic may be one of the key factors. In the realm of popular science products, many companies are venturing into the medical popularization sector to capture traffic, but none have invested as much effort as Tencent.

However, if a company can systematize and structure the diagnostic and treatment information systems for a wide range of diseases—including common illnesses, critical conditions, and rare disorders—and ultimately build an authoritative, comprehensive, and real-time updated knowledge graph, this will bring immense value to the enterprise as well as to patients at large.

As demonstrated at the opening ceremony of the Tencent Medicine ME Conference: Technology is a double-edged sword, and choosing to use it for good is a conscious decision. The very awareness of this fact is itself a choice.