Smart Interconnection, Empowering Advancement: South China Hospital Informatics Conference Explores Integration of IT and Frontier Technologies

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that the “2019 South China Hospital Information Network Conference,” hosted by the Hospital Informatics Professional Committee of the Guangdong Hospital Association, was held at the Zhuhai International Convention and Exhibition Center in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, from March 21 to 23, 2019. Themed “Smart Interconnectivity for Empowered Advancement,” the conference focused heavily on the integration of health informatics with cutting-edge technologies.

At the sub-forum on “Emerging Technologies and Artificial Intelligence,” experts and scholars from hospitals and life sciences companies analyzed, from their respective clinical contexts and across multiple dimensions, the opportunities and challenges that cutting-edge technologies can bring to hospitals.

When discussing smart hospitals, one cannot overlook AI-assisted imaging analysis systems. At the conference, Anne, CEO of SHUKUN, began with the origins of artificial intelligence and provided an accessible yet in-depth analysis of the application of computer vision in medical imaging.

As an AI enterprise specializing in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular care dedicated to clinical empowerment, SHUKUN’s AI products streamline the entire imaging diagnosis workflow. They enable rapid image extraction, automatic vessel labeling, and 3D heart reconstruction during post-processing and diagnostic stages. The CAD-RADS structured reports generated by its system feature clear and consistent conclusions, meeting hospital standardization requirements.

Although SHUKUN has achieved remarkable success in the field of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, Anne remains both hopeful and cautious about the future development of artificial intelligence: “The application of AI technology in healthcare is not merely a quantitative accumulation but also a qualitative improvement. However, at this current stage, we must still exercise caution in data collection, strictly adhere to laws and regulations governing data usage, and foster a favorable environment for AI technology. In doing so, a qualitative leap will inevitably occur sooner or later.”

Logistics robots for hospitals have not been around for long, yet they have rapidly proliferated across large hospitals like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Guangdong Site Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is one such example.

Hospitals indeed have a need for automated material transport. Statistics show that inpatient departments of tertiary hospitals alone require up to 64 staff members for transportation tasks. Meanwhile, since physicians often do not estimate consumption before using medical supplies, this process frequently results in significant waste.

In response to these challenges, Lai Zhilin, CTO of Xbotics, proposed a computer vision-based solution: “By leveraging robotic systems, we can deliver consumables in fixed quantities and precisely manage the supplies required for each individual surgery. During the R&D process, we found that indoor environments differ significantly from outdoor ones; factors such as confined spaces and complex three-dimensional obstacles place exceptionally high demands on our products. Therefore, our logistics robots employ a fusion of technologies—including pose estimation, LiDAR, and visual imaging—to localize both the robot and obstacles, enabling autonomous transportation without the need for external infrastructure.”

This robot’s utility extends beyond surgical settings; in the future, hospitals may achieve automated logistics management for medications, specimens, and meals.

Tencent has been engaged in hospital information technology infrastructure for several years, with a particularly deep presence in Guangzhou. At this conference, Zhang Guodong, General Manager of Tencent Cloud, summarized the development direction of Tencent’s Smart Hospital initiative across three dimensions: “Smart Healthcare,” “Public Benefit,” and “Efficient Management.”

On the consumer-facing side, leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud platforms, Tencent has developed services for patients including WeChat-based medical care, intelligent triage, smart pharmacies, and remote visitation. Patients can access these internet-connected services through interfaces such as the WeChat app and mini-programs, thereby significantly improving healthcare efficiency.

To address the shortage of medical resources, Tencent has developed the Tencent Miying AI-assisted diagnosis engine, leveraging artificial intelligence to tackle the severe scarcity of medical resources in China and liberating physicians to realize deeper professional value.

In the “Hui Guan” domain, Tencent has partnered with multiple enterprises to develop products such as medical insurance fraud prevention, intelligent security systems, and hospital president dashboards, leveraging big data to assist hospitals in daily management. WeCom will play a significant role in this effort.

In addition to the tireless efforts of SciLife, physicians have also stepped up to assist with data governance. Dr. Jian Wenhua from the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health took this opportunity to introduce the Big Data Construction Project for Respiratory Diseases, led by the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University.

According to the introduction, this project will address six common deficiencies in clinical research in China. These include shifting the prevailing paradigm that prioritizes basic science over clinical studies; rectifying the fragmentation and lack of integration of clinical resources; overcoming the disadvantage of a late start in systematic research; resolving data structural issues caused by inconsistent diagnostic labeling and clinical pathways in the past; and accelerating the development of specialized, dedicated research teams as well as upgrading lagging equipment and infrastructure. By addressing these challenges, the project will accelerate big data analytics in clinical settings, enabling researchers to accurately identify disease characteristics, standardize diagnosis and treatment protocols, and implement precision medicine.

Currently, big data platforms have entered the construction phase. In the future, this project will aim to develop prediction models for acute exacerbations; explore the associations between common biomarkers and respiratory diseases; map networks of comorbidities and concurrent conditions; advance drug utilization analysis; strengthen hospital quality control and Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) for both retrospective and prospective decision-making; investigate the impact of time-series data such as weather and air pollution; and build models linking pulmonary function to disease outcomes.

In this era, innovation in healthcare services is inseparable from the collaborative development between enterprises and hospitals, and the rapid growth of smart hospitals in South China has set an example for the rest of the country.

The healthcare sector is vast and sparsely populated; whether it is internet giants like Tencent or startups such as SHUKUN, they will all find their place in tech-driven healthcare through collaborative efforts.

Meanwhile, as Anne from SHUKUN Technology stated, enterprises should prioritize scientific research collaborations with hospitals, as current AI technology is far from being as intelligent as depicted in science fiction.

Yet everything is progressing in a positive direction, with each annual South China Hospital Information Network Conference showcasing further development and innovation.

This trend is bound to continue, and we look forward to frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence helping to break through the bottlenecks of information technology, thereby contributing greater value to the iterative development of hospitals.