Jing-Jin-Ji Medical Big Data Pilot Zone Explores New Pathways for Healthcare Empowerment Through Data Innovation

Recently, VCBeat (WeChat official account: vcbeat) learned that the “Second Medical Big Data Development and Application Conference & Third China Hospital Capacity Building and Development Conference” was held in Yujiapu, Tianjin. At the conference, the “2018 Report on the Development of the Health and Medical Big Data Industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”) was released. As the “Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone” approaches its second anniversary since its official launch, the Report provides a detailed review and analysis of the medical big data industries in the three regions, drawing widespread attention from attendees.

Since 2018, the General Office of the State Council has issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of 'Internet + Healthcare'," and the National Health Commission has released the "Standards and Specifications for Hospital Information Construction Nationwide (Trial)." With the frequent introduction of favorable policies for healthcare informatization, "Internet + Healthcare," medical big data, and artificial intelligence are ushering in a golden period of development.

However, enabling healthcare to truly “embrace” big data faces numerous issues and challenges.

Recently, the Capacity Building and Continuing Education Center of the National Health and Family Planning Commission conducted a preliminary nationwide survey to assess the awareness among management personnel of tertiary public hospitals regarding hospital information technology (IT) infrastructure and the application of medical big data. The initial results present a concerning picture: there is weak willingness and unclear understanding among public hospital leadership toward developing medical big data, coupled with a significant shortage of IT professionals in hospitals.

At the conference, Zhou Gongwei, Deputy Director of the Statistical Information Center of the National Health Commission, stated that, from a technical perspective, there is an urgent need to upgrade existing storage systems, establish a classified storage architecture, and implement diversified storage solutions to handle the massive volume of structured and unstructured data. In terms of computational capacity, it is necessary to adopt new computing architectures adapted for big data processing, while ensuring operational stability, continuity, and data integrity. Furthermore, balancing input and output, as well as safeguarding the security of healthcare big data, are crucial for the development of medical big data. Lu Qingjun, Director of the Office of the Telemedicine Management and Training Center under the National Health Commission, also pointed out that current efforts in hospital internet-based informatization face several challenges, including an overemphasis on equipment at the expense of application, lack of top-level design, imperfect service fee standards, and insufficient awareness among medical staff.

Experts, scholars, and corporate representatives attending the conference stated that, as healthcare system reforms enter a critical phase, promoting the integration of big data with healthcare and leveraging big data to empower medical services is of significant importance for the development of public hospitals.

In fact, many regions, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, are actively exploring application scenarios and models for medical big data and artificial intelligence. The resulting achievements offer valuable references for industry development.

At the opening ceremony of the conference on the 25th, the “2018 Report on the Development of the Health and Medical Big Data Industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region,” jointly compiled by the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Health and Medical Big Data Industry Promotion Association and LinkDoc Technology with support from the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, was officially released. The report reviews and analyzes current policies on medical big data in the three regions and provides a comprehensive overview of the industrial landscape of medical big data in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.

The Report shows that the medical big data industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is experiencing rapid growth, with increasingly prominent advantages in industrial agglomeration, a continuously improving policy framework, and ongoing upgrades to infrastructure. Taking Tianjin Binhai New Area as an example, over the past two years, it has actively explored effective means and pathways for leveraging big data to serve economic and social development, innovated policies, and optimized the business environment, thereby providing a robust platform for the big data industry. As a result, numerous medical big data companies, including LinkDoc Technology, have established their presence in Tianjin Binhai New Area.

The Report notes that the establishment of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone has provided significant momentum for the development of the medical big data industry across the three regions. Medical big data is playing an increasingly important role in various fields, including government regulatory decision-making, imaging diagnostics, hospital management and healthcare model restructuring, health management, gene sequencing, and new drug research and development. However, issues concerning the security and ethical use of medical big data cannot be overlooked; relevant industry standards and detailed regulatory rules urgently need to be implemented, and viable business models require further exploration.

Zhang Tianze, President of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Health and Medical Big Data Industry Promotion Association, stated that in recent years, the big data industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has developed rapidly, becoming a national hub for medical big data. Relying on Beijing Zhongguancun’s industrial technologies and Tianjin’s supercomputing industry layout, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone has fostered more than 100 medical big data enterprises, including LinkDoc Technology—a figure nearly equivalent to the combined total of the other seven national-level big data pilot zones. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Big Data Demonstration Zone is home to more than 270 higher education institutions.

Over the past three years, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Medical Big Data Industrial Base has been successfully established in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin. In subsequent translational applications, the big data platform has facilitated oncology experts in producing nearly 10 scientific research papers published in top-tier international journals. LinkDoc Technology, together with Tianjin Chest Hospital, has also built the first AI-based imaging diagnosis and treatment platform for lung cancer in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. This human-machine collaborative system can evaluate more than 350 patients per day with an accuracy rate exceeding 85%. Big data has transformed clinical centers into industrial hubs, turning what was once a conceptual plan for clinical research into reality.

Not only in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, but for the entire pharmaceutical industry, the empowering value of “big data” has already become evident:

Xu Ruiping, President of Anyang Cancer Hospital, stated that in September 2016, the hospital entered into in-depth collaborations with LinkDoc Technology and other enterprises to structure hundreds of thousands of oncology medical records. Leveraging a big data platform, these efforts have accelerated disciplinary development and achieved significant outcomes in clinical diagnosis and clinical research.

Ding Lihua, Chief Operating Officer of LinkDoc Technology, stated, “From the perspective of health insurance, future reimbursement standards will be based on medical value and evidence, with big data analytics delivering significant benefits. From the hospital’s standpoint, evidence-based medicine requires the continuous accumulation of evidence and data to provide more compelling data in service of patients. From the patient’s perspective, individuals seek appropriate treatment at reasonable costs, and they likewise require robust data support.”

“Of these three stakeholders, the primary concern is data,” Ding Lihua further stated.

As a leading medical big data enterprise in China, LinkDoc Technology leverages digitalization, networking, and intelligence as its tools and engines to provide comprehensive big data and artificial intelligence solutions for medical institutions, industry regulatory authorities, governments at all levels, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance organizations. It has established the world’s largest and most extensive medical big data repository, along with a highly competitive technical support service system, assisting partner institutions in data integration, cleaning, analysis, and application, thereby realizing the delivery and monetization of data value.

It is worth noting that LinkDoc Technology also engages in the construction of regional data centers, clinical research services, real-world studies, full lifecycle management and industry insights for pharmaceutical products, medical artificial intelligence applications, DTP (Direct-to-Patient) pharmacies, internet hospitals, and precise end-to-end management services for patients with critical illnesses, thereby comprehensively empowering the healthcare sector.