Alibaba Health Unveils Smart Healthcare Advancements at Yunqi Conference, Partnering with Three Leading Hospitals in East China

The Apsara Conference, a premier global summit for the internet industry hosted by Alibaba Group, is currently underway in Hangzhou. As Alibaba’s flagship healthcare platform, AliHealth has also established a dedicated session on smart healthcare at the event, sharing how it leverages internet and artificial intelligence technologies to empower medical services and build an intelligent health platform.

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that at the Smart Healthcare Special Session of the Apsara Conference on the 13th, Alibaba Health disclosed its latest advancements for the first time—signing agreements with three hospitals, namely The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (hereinafter referred to as “Zhejiang University First Affiliated Hospital”), The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (hereinafter referred to as “Zhejiang University Second Affiliated Hospital”), and Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai Xinhua Hospital”), to accelerate the implementation of smart healthcare solutions.

According to information released by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, these three hospitals ranked among the top 50 in the 2016 China Hospital Technological Influence List, placing 5th, 32nd, and 47th nationwide, respectively. A convergence of cutting-edge medical technology and leading hospitals is fostering an “Internet + Healthcare” technological revolution in Hangzhou and Shanghai, aimed at enhancing physicians’ work efficiency and improving patients’ healthcare experience through artificial intelligence.

Prior to this, Alibaba Health had unveiled its Medical Artificial Intelligence Engineering Laboratory, launched an intelligent training platform for physician talent, and established a new model for smart hospitals...

Making Artificial Intelligence Smarter——

Jointly with the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, the Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Medical Artificial Intelligence was unveiled

The “Zhejiang Laboratory for Medical Artificial Intelligence,” jointly applied for by Alibaba Health and The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, will soon be established in Hangzhou. At the conference held on the 13th, the Zhejiang Engineering Laboratory for Medical Artificial Intelligence was officially unveiled and established.

Alibaba Health and The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine Hold Unveiling Ceremony for Medical Artificial Intelligence Engineering Laboratory

This laboratory is a substantive research institution established and managed with the support of The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. Going forward, the two parties will join forces in the field of medical artificial intelligence, focusing on intelligent decision-making, intelligent assisted diagnosis, and intelligent information security, to build an intelligent medical research system.

The laboratory plans to spend three years from 2018 to 2020 to build four major public platform products: a blockchain-based medical consortium data platform, an AI-assisted medical imaging diagnostic platform, a big data-driven intelligent medical research platform, and an AI-powered clinical decision support platform. These initiatives aim to realize the application of artificial intelligence, data mining, and other technologies in the field of medical treatment in Zhejiang Province.

Previously, Alibaba Health released “Doctor You,” a medical AI system developed to serve as an assistant to professional physicians, with the goal of “reducing doctors’ workload by half within ten years.” This collaboration will enable Doctor You to become “smarter” through clinical research and accelerate the practical implementation of AI applications.

Empowering Physicians with Greater Professionalism—

Partnering with The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine to Build “Virtual Patients” and Co-create an “Intelligent Training Platform for Medical Professionals”

However, no matter how intelligent artificial intelligence (AI) becomes, it remains an assistant to human physicians. As AI capabilities advance, physicians’ competencies must also be enhanced in the era of “Internet Plus.” On the 13th, at the Smart Healthcare Forum of the Apsara Conference, Alibaba Health presented a new model of collaboration between the Internet and hospitals.

On that day, Alibaba Health, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, and the China Medical and Health Development Foundation, a public welfare organization, jointly announced that they would leverage their respective strengths to collaborate with medical institutions, social organizations, and enterprises across China. Through open cooperation, they aim to jointly promote the development of the “Intelligent Training Platform for Medical Professionals.”

Alibaba Health, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, and China Medical and Health Development Foundation Sign Agreement to Establish Intelligent Medical Talent Training Base

Currently, the three parties are attempting to anonymize various clinical case data and transform them into three-dimensional "virtual patients." Through human-computer voice interaction, they simulate clinical scenarios for treatment, facilitate online discussions, and conduct comprehensive scoring. This approach aims to achieve the training, examination, evaluation, and supervision of healthcare professionals' clinical diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities, thereby enabling the accumulation and inheritance of experience in the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases.

Building on the “Virtual Patient” online training system and integrating it with standardized residency training and continuing medical education for physicians, the project will develop an intelligent physician training management platform to establish a standardized, digitalized, procedural, and systematic framework for medical talent development, thereby creating a national-level “Intelligent Training Platform for Medical Professionals.”

Making Hospitals More Convenient—

Signing with Shanghai Xinhua Hospital: Alibaba Explores a New Model for “Smart Hospitals”

Shortage of pediatricians, persistent information silos, uneven distribution of medical resources, and obstacles to advancing tiered diagnosis and treatment... In the face of these myriad challenges in healthcare reform, traditional hospitals are “not fighting alone”; the entry of internet giants has opened up new possibilities for addressing these issues.

At the Smart Healthcare Special Session of the Apsara Conference held in Hangzhou on the 13th, Alibaba, led by AliHealth, officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Xinhua Hospital) to jointly explore a new model for “Smart Hospitals.” Wang Lei, CEO of AliHealth, and Sun Kun, President of Shanghai Xinhua Hospital, attended the event and signed the agreement.

Wang Lei, Vice President of Alibaba and CEO of AliHealth (first from left), and Sun Kun, President of Shanghai Xinhua Hospital, at the signing ceremony for their smart hospital collaboration

The cooperation agreement reveals that Alibaba and Xinhua Hospital will collaborate to build a hospital hybrid cloud platform and a cloud-based pediatric medical consortium platform, develop an intelligent physician training system and a medical research data platform, and implement mobile payment across the entire in-hospital patient journey, thereby creating a model “Smart Hospital.” It is understood that this partnership has the potential to enhance the level of pediatric clinical expertise and service capacity in northern Shanghai. Issues such as the training of primary-care pediatricians can be addressed more rapidly through the intelligent physician training system, while the shortage of pediatric medical resources is expected to be alleviated via the cloud-based pediatric medical consortium platform.

“In 2017, ‘Internet + Healthcare’ evolved into the ‘3.0’ era, led by cutting-edge technologies such as big data, AI, and medical consortia.” Wang Lei, CEO of Ali Health, stated, “Despite the rapid changes in the industry, the ultimate goal of technology remains health. This is also Ali Health’s unwavering original aspiration: ‘Leveraging big data to empower healthcare and using the internet to transform health.’”

As Alibaba Group’s flagship platform in the healthcare sector, AliHealth collaborates with external institutions—including local governments, hospitals, and research universities—to pilot initiatives in tiered diagnosis and treatment, medical consortia, and smart healthcare. By establishing an efficient, intelligent online-offline integrated diagnosis and treatment platform, AliHealth helps medical institutions enhance disease management and health insurance decision-making, ultimately enabling the public to access affordable and universally available pharmaceutical and healthcare services.