Tongren Municipal People's Hospital Launches Southwest China's First Filmless Medical Imaging Cloud Platform with AI Capabilities

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on the afternoon of April 18, Tongren People's Hospital and Hangzhou Lianzhong Medical Science Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lianzhong Medical") signed an agreement for the Intelligent Medical Imaging Cloud Platform project. This marks the official launch of the first filmless system based on imaging cloud big data and medical AI applications in Southwest China.

At the conference, Shi Hua, President of Tongren People’s Hospital, stated that in response to the government’s call and amidst the wave of “Internet Plus,” the hospital has actively built a “Smart Hospital.” It has taken the lead in the southwestern region by robustly launching an initiative centered on “filmless imaging in the era of cloud-based big data and artificial intelligence (AI),” thereby providing patients with more convenient services and ushering in a new chapter in the application of cloud-based big data for medical imaging.

Chen Shaorong, Deputy Secretary of the Tongren Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of the Tongren Municipal People’s Government, stated that this launch event marks a milestone in the development of Tongren’s healthcare sector. He expressed hope for the establishment of an internet-based medical data-sharing platform across the entire city of Tongren, emphasizing the need to leverage “Internet Plus Healthcare” to drive this initiative, embrace big data, and utilize advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence to enhance medical services, thereby improving the public’s sense of gain.

Fan Yun (left), General Manager of Lianzhong Medical's Guizhou Subsidiary, Signs Agreement with Shi Hua (right), President of Tongren People's Hospital

According to VCBeat, the Radiology Department of Tongren People's Hospital spent approximately RMB 6 million on film in 2017. After implementing a filmless workflow in 2018, the hospital is expected to save around RMB 4 million, achieving a cost reduction rate of over 65%.

Shi Tianliang, Director of the Radiology Department at Tongren People’s Hospital, stated that traditional imaging not only incurs high costs, wastes resources, and causes environmental pollution, but also fails to meet the requirements for high-quality printing, transmission, and storage of images. In contrast, the newly customized electronic QR codes are low-cost and environmentally friendly, enabling permanent storage of original images. They support remote consultations and mobile image review, facilitating the convenient sharing of high-quality medical resources and making healthcare more accessible to the public. AI-assisted applications based on the intelligent medical imaging cloud platform have reached the level of top domestic experts in the identification and assessment of small pulmonary nodules.

This launch event marks a significant milestone in the collaboration between the Guizhou Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission and LIANZHONG MEDICAL, following their 2016 agreement on the construction of a provincial-level imaging cloud platform. The filmless transformation of imaging cloud big data and the application of medical AI are inevitable outcomes of Guizhou’s big data development, driven by the advancement of hospital informatization and the influence of mobile internet.

As the first to implement glue-free applications in the Tongren region and even the southwest region, providing comprehensive internet medical application functions for patients, doctors, and medical consortium institutions, Tongren People's Hospital has taken an important step in practicing technology benefiting the people, smart healthcare, promoting regional medical information construction, and deepening public hospital reform.