Chen Guang, Deputy Director of China Assistive Devices Service Centre for Persons with Disabilities: The Development of Assistive Devices Relies on the Healthcare Security System

Chen Guang, Deputy Director of the China Assistive Technology Center for Persons with Disabilities

Since the reform and opening-up, China’s rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities have developed rapidly under the care and support of the Party and the government. A series of relevant policies have been introduced successively. Beginning with the Eighth Five-Year Plan, the state has consecutively implemented five programmatic outlines related to assistive devices for persons with disabilities, promoting the development of assistive device services and providing significant guarantees to meet the extensive needs of persons with disabilities for such devices. In recent years, the state has attached great importance to the publicity, promotion, and popularization of knowledge about assistive devices, thereby enhancing public awareness. Meanwhile, the continuous improvement in the purchasing power of persons with disabilities and the supply capacity for assistive devices has played an important role in stimulating the growth in demand for assistive devices among this population.

To accelerate the rapid development of assistive devices and ensure patients receive optimal treatment, healthcare security policies are crucial. China is the world’s largest potential market for assistive devices. However, a comprehensive coverage system for assistive devices has yet to be established. For persons with disabilities, costs associated with obtaining assistive devices and undergoing rehabilitation training are largely out-of-pocket, except in some regions where subsidies are available for low-income individuals and those with severe disabilities, and where a limited number of rehabilitation services are covered by medical insurance. This financial burden has become a bottleneck for the development of the assistive device industry and hinders patients’ access to optimal care. Therefore, the state should gradually tilt medical insurance policies toward the provision of assistive devices and rehabilitation training, progressively expanding the scope of coverage to enable more persons with disabilities to benefit from medical insurance.

China is witnessing robust momentum in the intelligent development of assistive devices, exemplified by smart prosthetics, intelligent rehabilitation training equipment, and smart nursing care devices. The emergence of these products has been impressive, not only providing persons with disabilities with greater convenience and benefits in rehabilitation, daily living, and learning, but also demonstrating the promising prospects of intelligent technologies in the application of assistive devices. This trend creates new opportunities for innovation in assistive technology and challenges the long-held perception that assistive devices for persons with disabilities are simple and lack technological sophistication.

In recent years, China’s research and development in assistive technology has advanced rapidly, yielding a number of scientific achievements in frontier international areas, technological innovation, and the filling of critical gaps. Many of these achievements hold promising market prospects. However, the rate of commercialization remains low, with many innovations stalled at the prototype stage. This phenomenon is primarily attributed to two factors: first, a disconnect between research project initiation and market demand, as well as a prevalent emphasis on publications and academic outputs over practical application; second, an underdeveloped mechanism for translating scientific achievements into commercial products, making it difficult for these innovations to find channels for market integration.