Building Medical Data Platforms: A Collaborative Endeavor Beyond Solo Efforts

In 2016, the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on the Application and Development of Health and Medical Big Data, marking the elevation of medical big data to the level of national strategy. In 2017, big data was once again featured in Premier Li Keqiang’s Government Work Report; the deepening integration of big data and cloud computing into the healthcare sector has pioneered new service models.Leveraging Big Medical Data for Health Management, the Broad Health Market Becomes a Prize Everyone Wants a Share Of.

The concept of health management originated in the United States in the late 1950s. Initially, health insurance providers implemented systematic health management for their clients to effectively control the onset or progression of diseases, significantly reduce the probability of insurance claims and actual medical expenditures, and thereby minimize claim losses. Put simply, this industry initially emerged as a cost-saving measure. In China, due to the limited penetration of commercial insurance, health management is currently mainly applied to the prevention and control of chronic diseases, with employers serving as the primary payers. With the widespread adoption of smart devices and the establishment of data platforms, health monitoring and the shift from “treatment” to “prevention” have become a new lifestyle in the public consciousness.

China’s health management industry is still in its early stages, and its vast population market has attracted numerous foreign companies to take notice.In the landscape of the health and wellness industry, an increasing number of enterprises are opting for cross-border collaborations to integrate high-quality resources with platform development, thereby achieving interconnectivity.Currently, health management collaborations between China and other countries primarily involve three aspects: technology introduction, joint system development, and strategic cooperation.

Shortly after the 2016 National Day holiday, DHC Software issued an announcement stating that it had signed a “Software License and Joint Development Agreement” with IBM. The two parties will collaborate on data analytics for precision medicine and jointly establish a team to develop a research and analysis platform for precision healthcare.

In this collaboration, IBM provides DHC Software with technical deliverables in three areas: a precision medicine research and analysis platform; workflows and methodologies for disease risk prediction models; and patient segmentation workflows and methodologies.

Although the prospects for precision medicine are highly promising, the collection and integration of large-scale sample data remain a complex process in its implementation.IBM’s core cognitive computing technology facilitates the analysis of patient disease data. Through collaboration with IBM, technical challenges in the field of precision medicine have been effectively addressed, significantly enhancing Donghua Software’s data processing capabilities and laying the technological groundwork for its future development of a proprietary “Watson” system.

Taking this collaboration as a starting point, IBM and Donghua Software have established a long-term partnership. Built on a reusable analytics platform jointly developed by both parties, the initiative will initially focus on three oncology-related disease types, with the platform designed to support analytical work for additional indications in the future. This partnership represents a prime opportunity for IBM Watson Health, currently enjoying widespread popularity, to enter the Chinese market through its Watson for Oncology solution. The collaboration between Donghua Software and IBM marks the beginning of efforts to advance precision medicine in China, while also further solidifying Donghua Software’s leading position among China’s smart healthcare enterprises.

On June 29, 2017, Miao Health and Massachusetts Medical International signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing. Based on the principles of complementary advantages, equal partnership, and mutual benefit, both parties will engage in in-depth collaboration across multiple areas, including health big data, healthcare services, and health management.

One year ago, on June 22, 2016, Miao Health launched its grand health ecosystem initiative themed [MORE | More] (also known as the Miao Planet Project).

Recently, news related to the “Miao Planet” initiative has continued to emerge. On June 28, 2017, Miao Health and Hard Egg Joint Investment 100 jointly held a closed-door venture capital roadshow titled “Venture Capital in Big Health,” which had just concluded. The following day, on June 29, Miao Health and Massachusetts Medical International completed the signing of their strategic cooperation agreement.

Massachusetts Medical International boasts abundant medical resources and will provide more detailed, professional, and scientific intellectual support for the continuous improvement of AI-driven health management. This collaboration will accelerate the entry of health management into the Health Management 2.0 era, centered on big data and artificial intelligence. Together, the two parties have established a communication channel for smart devices and health big data between China and the United States, enabling health big data to transcend limitations imposed by technology, time, and space, thereby unlocking greater data value.

The roadshow event “VCBeat Big Health” and the strategic cooperation with Massachusetts International Medical are merely part of the expansion of the big health ecosystem chain under the Miao Planet Initiative launched by More Health. In the future, as the ecosystem chain of the Miao Planet Initiative is further developed, More Health will establish deeper collaborations with more outstanding smart hardware providers and more professional medical service institutions.Leveraging big data to support health management and precision medicine services, enabling more “precise” treatments in precision medicine.

According to public data, China currently has 300 million patients with hypertension, 100 million with hyperlipidemia, and 100 million with hyperglycemia, with these numbers continuing to rise at a rate exceeding that of previous years. This vast market opportunity has attracted the multinational pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. On April 9, 2016, AstraZeneca formally signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Chunyu Doctors, under which both parties will integrate online and offline channels to jointly establish an integrated chronic disease management system.

Currently, the collaboration between AstraZeneca and Chunyu Doctor focuses on two key areas: chronic disease training for primary care physicians and the development of a chronic disease management platform, with a primary emphasis on cardiovascular care. Driven by the advancement of the tiered diagnosis and treatment system, which has led to a continuous diversion of patients from large hospitals to primary care institutions, AstraZeneca has chosen to partner with Chunyu Doctor, a company specializing in mobile healthcare for primary care settings. This partnership aligns closely with AstraZeneca’s 3D innovation strategy and Chunyu Doctor’s concept of an O+O (Online-to-Offline) service closed loop.

For Chunyu Doctor, which focuses on mobile healthcare, collaboration with the pharmaceutical sector is its primary strategic direction.As early as 2014, Zhang Rui, then CEO of Chunyu Yisheng (Spring Rain Doctor), revealed in a speech that 40% of the daily inquiries on the platform involved medication purchase requests, which could generate substantial sales volume for pharmaceutical companies.

The collaboration between these two enterprises essentially establishes an integrated diagnosis and treatment service platform for patients with chronic diseases at the primary care level. Chunyu Doctor provides chronic disease management training to primary care physicians, thereby improving the diagnosis and treatment rates of chronic conditions in grassroots settings. This enables patients to receive prevention and care for chronic diseases at community hospitals and other primary triage facilities, eliminating the necessity of visiting large tertiary hospitals, which often entails longer wait times and greater inconvenience. The two parties are jointly building a data platform that connects information from primary medical institutions, bridging isolated data silos into an integrated network. This facilitates comprehensive, end-to-end management solutions in the field of chronic disease care.

According to data from Baidu Baike, there are currently more than 3,000 professional health management companies in China, many of which have secured investments in the tens of millions of U.S. dollars; it is estimated that over $1 billion in foreign capital has been invested in China’s health management industry.

In China’s health management collaborations, foreign enterprises often possess advantageous resources in technology or management. Their common ground lies in the substantial market gap within China’s health management sector. Health management models encompass both technology-driven medical companies, such as IBM and Donghua Software, which introduce big data and cloud computing into hospital databases by starting with healthcare institutions, and health management companies like Miao Jiankang (More Health), which focus on deep user engagement, collect data at the source, and develop an experience-based economy. The global sharing of medical resources is highly attractive to both patients and healthcare institutions.

One can envision a scenario in which users, by linking their mobile apps with smart devices, achieve real-time sharing of health data. This enables integrated diagnosis and treatment from the comfort of home, without the need to travel, and even facilitates access to medical expertise and resources abroad.The establishment of a global information data platform breaks the threat of "data silos" and connects healthcare institutions worldwide.

Wu Liangyou, Director of the Chronic Disease Division under the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, stated that “health management is not government-led but rather self-driven; everyone must take charge of their own health.” Patients are actively generating health data. China possesses a massive volume of medical data, which has evolved from electronic medical records to broader health data. Lifestyle-oriented health management practices from abroad are gradually influencing people in China. Although China lagged behind by more than a decade in the development of the health management industry, its potential in the realm of medical big data is undoubtedly immense.