Philips and Shenzhou Healthcare Launch 'ShenFei Cloud' to Enable Precision Diagnosis in Grassroots Hospitals

Shanghai, China – On April 11, at the 2018 Spring China Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF), Philips and Digital China Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (“Digital China Medical”) officially launched “Shenfei Cloud,” a China-based smart healthcare cloud platform co-created through their in-depth collaboration. As a secure and reliable big data application platform for healthcare, Shenfei Cloud aims to provide customized and scalable cloud solutions for medical institutions, intelligent and highly efficient clinical workflows for physicians, and cloud-based health services supporting full-lifecycle patient management.

“Shenfei Cloud” has pioneered the deployment of the “Philips Nebula Image Post-Processing System,” an intelligent medical imaging computer-aided diagnosis system dual-certified by the FDA and CFDA, onto the cloud. This initiative provides customers with a “cloud platform” solution featuring greater flexibility and convenience, customizable service packages, and adaptable payment mechanisms. By leveraging authoritative and advanced healthcare IT tools at a cost-effective price point, healthcare institutions at all levels can empower physicians to achieve efficient, precise diagnoses and personalized surgical planning, predict surgical outcomes in advance, and conduct timely postoperative assessments, ultimately enhancing surgical quality and patients’ quality of life.

Digitalization and artificial intelligence technologies can help the healthcare industry improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance outcomes. As a leader in health technology, Philips is committed to deploying advanced digital and AI technologies within real-world clinical settings to unlock the value of high-quality clinical data. For the global market, Philips has launched a series of intelligently enabled products and solutions, certified by authoritative institutions, across the entire continuum of care. These offerings support precision diagnosis and treatment, improve hospital operational efficiency, and empower personal health management.

Image source: Shenzhou Cloud official website

“The Philips Nebula System” is an integrated, intelligent clinical imaging diagnostic platform that enables image fusion across imaging devices of different brands and types. It provides advanced visualization and post-processing for multimodal imaging, assisting radiologists in better lesion identification, as well as in monitoring, diagnosing, and following up on disease treatment. Version 9.01 also features new machine learning capabilities, offering intelligent diagnostic support to clinicians. Covering multiple clinical domains in radiology—including cardiology, oncology (liver, lung, breast, prostate, etc.), and neurology—the system comprises over 80 applications. Through advanced 3D rendering, it presents anatomical structures with greater clarity, helping clinicians make rapid and precise diagnostic decisions based on imaging findings and plan personalized treatment regimens.

Philip Guo, CEO of Philips Greater China, stated, “In China, Philips leverages co-creation through integration with local smart ecosystems to apply digitalization, artificial intelligence, and other technologies to real-world clinical scenarios. We develop intelligent solutions that meet the actual needs of China’s healthcare market and tangibly enhance user capabilities. Furthermore, we strive to accelerate market entry through innovative business models, delivering superior healthcare experiences to doctors and patients at lower costs. ‘Shenfei Cloud,’ co-created with Neusoft Medical Systems, is one of the key outcomes of our strategic implementation in China. By leveraging the cloud-based solutions of the ‘Philips Nebula System,’ it enables precise remote diagnostic imaging, thereby helping to achieve equitable access to high-quality medical resources across Chinese society.”

Mr. Guo Wei, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Digital China Holdings Limited, extended his congratulations on the launch of “Shenfei Cloud” and emphasized, “Smart healthcare is a vital component of Digital China Holdings’ vision for ‘Digital China.’ ShenZhou Medical will leverage its world-leading big data capabilities to empower industries and institutions, making healthcare smarter and enhancing people’s ability to combat diseases such as cancer. The ‘Shenfei Cloud’ launched today represents one of the initial outcomes of the collaboration between ShenZhou Medical and Philips, and serves as a crucial step toward jointly realizing our vision for smart healthcare. We are delighted to deepen our cooperation with Philips, a company with a century-long heritage in medical practice, and I have full confidence in this partnership.”

Mr. Shi Wenzhao, CEO of Shenzhou Medical, stated, “As a key participant in the national strategy for medical big data, Shenzhou Medical bears the important strategic mission of promoting the development of China’s health and medical big data industry. Our goal is to address the needs and pain points of big data development in Chinese medical institutions in the era of precision medicine by creating an integrated business layout encompassing ‘Precision Medicine,’ ‘Medical Cloud Services,’ and ‘Medical Big Data.’ This approach helps medical institutions complete data collection, management, mining, and reuse, thereby supporting hospitals and research institutions in achieving effective application of big data. Through our collaboration with Philips, we are committed to connecting with professional medical technology organizations and leading enterprises both domestically and internationally, drawing on global leading medical technologies and advanced models. We aim to explore health and medical data application models suited to China’s specific conditions, lead the development of China’s health and medical big data industry, and promote the advancement of AI-driven precision medicine.”

“Shenfei Cloud,” jointly launched by Philips and Shenzhou Medical, is designed to meet the urgent needs of building medical consortiums under the tiered diagnosis and treatment system. The establishment of medical consortiums represents a critical step and institutional innovation in implementing tiered diagnosis and treatment. It facilitates the adjustment and optimization of healthcare resource allocation, enhances primary care service capabilities, and stands as a top priority in China’s healthcare reform. Approximately 70% of clinical diagnoses rely on medical imaging; however, imaging diagnosis remains one of the weakest links in primary hospitals. Therefore, enabling remote imaging diagnosis within medical consortiums holds significant practical value for strengthening primary care. Building a “Remote Medical Imaging Solution” relies on core technologies across three tiers, which are, from top to bottom: imaging diagnostic equipment, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems and services; health information exchange (HIE) technologies and services; and medical image data storage and management platforms.

The strategic partnership between the two parties is dedicated to integrating technologies and services across the aforementioned three tiers, delivering medical remote imaging solutions with the greatest clinical depth in the industry. Leveraging cloud-based connectivity, “Shenfei Cloud” provides various image collaboration and sharing services. By relying on the “Philips Nebula System,” it enables remote diagnosis, bidirectional patient referral, remote consultation, remote training, and remote workflow management among hospitals at different levels. Its clients include medical consortia, medical imaging centers, physician groups, third-party independent imaging centers, and health examination centers, among others.

It is reported that, under the strategic cooperation agreement between Philips and Shenzhou Medical, both parties will leverage “Shenfei Cloud” to sequentially launch a series of products and services, including a full-lifecycle health cloud platform and an oncology cloud platform.