IBM and DHCC Software Forge Strategic Alliance to Advance Precision Medicine and Capture the Booming Healthcare-Aging Market

On October 9, DHC Software announced that it had signed a "Software License and Joint Development Agreement" with IBM. The two parties will establish a joint team to collaboratively develop solutions for medical data analysis and translation in the field of precision medicine.

Leveraging IBM’s licensing of its recent technological achievements and intellectual property in precision medicine research to Donghua Software, as well as Donghua Software’s robust development capabilities in digital healthcare application systems, IBM and Donghua Software have launched a three-year joint research and development initiative focused on new precision medicine technologies, aiming to co-create a precision medicine research and analytics platform.

This means that both parties will leverage their respective strengths to achieve breakthroughs in translating medical research findings into clinical applications, thereby laying a solid technical foundation for future advances in disease understanding, intelligent healthcare, and precision medicine.

IBM—A Leader in Big Data Processing for Precision Medicine

When U.S. President Barack Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative in his State of the Union address in January 2015, “precision medicine” became a hot topic worldwide, stirring up the pharmaceutical and health industry market. Pharmaceutical giants both in China and abroad rushed to seize opportunities in this field. According to research reports, the global precision medicine market size approached $60 billion in 2015, with an expected annual growth rate of 15% over the next five years—three to four times the overall growth rate of the pharmaceutical industry. In March this year, the Ministry of Science and Technology convened China’s first expert meeting on national precision medicine strategy, proposing the Chinese Precision Medicine Plan. The meeting pointed out that by 2030, China will invest 60 billion yuan in the field of precision medicine, including 20 billion yuan from central government expenditure and 40 billion yuan matched by enterprises and local governments.

The core elements of precision medicine are “precision” and “medicine,” while technological tools such as big data analytics and medical information application systems serve as the prerequisites for achieving “precision.” It is foreseeable that the realization of precision medicine based on technologies like big data and cognitive computing, along with the widespread adoption of personal genomic sequencing, is bringing about profound transformations to the global health and healthcare industries.

Although the prospects for precision medicine are highly promising, its implementation is extremely complex. The accurate collection and integration of large-scale sample data, along with simple and efficient cognitive computing for such data, represent key high-tech capabilities as well as significant technical challenges in precision medicine. In addition, similarity-based phenotyping analysis of patient disease data poses another major challenge to the advancement of precision medicine. Consequently, the complexity of big data in precision medicine far exceeds that of traditional internet big data.

Currently, medical institutions across China are actively deploying precision medicine initiatives. However, clinical data within these institutions remain fragmented in "data silos," where systems appear integrated but lack true interoperability. Significant challenges persist in constructing comprehensive, end-to-end electronic health records (EHRs) centered on clinical data, resulting in insufficient, ineffective, and incomplete data samples. These issues hinder the integrated and standardized development of precision medicine.

In this collaboration, IBM, known as the “Blue Giant,” is an undisputed leader in big data processing within the field of precision medicine. Leveraging the strengths of Watson Health and partnering with top-tier medical experts in China, IBM has applied big data processing technologies to clinical research. By employing emerging technologies such as cognitive computing, big data analytics, and cloud computing, it has developed proprietary technological achievements for the processing and analysis of medical big data, thereby enhancing the efficiency of medical data analysis and improving the accuracy of clinical research outcomes.

On August 12, 2016, when the then-popular IBM Watson Health entered the Chinese market through its Watson for Oncology platform, it publicly stated its expectation to promote the development of cognitive computing in healthcare in China by collaborating with government agencies, medical institutions, commercial entities, and academic teams. The current partnership between IBM and Donghua Software may well represent such a beginning.

Donghua Software — A Leader in Healthcare IT and Smart Healthcare

On November 11, 2015, the State Council held an executive meeting and decided to promote the integration of medical care with elderly care services, so as to better ensure that the elderly have access to both medical treatment and proper care. Since the beginning of this year, against the backdrop of strong national support for healthcare informatization, local governments have continuously strengthened their support for the integrated medical and elderly care industry, placing particular emphasis on expanding the application of healthcare IT in elderly care services. Hebei Province has proposed establishing an organic collaborative mechanism between medical and elderly care services, formulating standards for medical information exchange, implementing a system for mutual recognition of examination and test results among medical institutions, and setting up cooperation mechanisms with expert hospitals in Beijing and Tianjin. Heilongjiang Province has proposed vigorously developing internet-based information technologies for application in health and elderly care services, strengthening the intelligent construction of integrated medical and elderly care service systems, and providing mobile medical services to seniors receiving home-based or institutional care. Taking smart healthcare development as an opportunity, Beijing Municipality has established a comprehensive, multi-dimensional emergency medical information system covering emergency command centers, ambulances, medical personnel, and receiving medical facilities.

As a leading enterprise in China’s smart healthcare sector, DHC Software has cultivated extensive expertise in medical informatization over many years. Its digital hospital solution, iMedical, provides software system support for the core operations of more than 500 healthcare institutions across China, including over 300 Grade A tertiary hospitals. Notable clients include Peking Union Medical College Hospital, West China Hospital, Xiangya Hospital, and the First Hospital of China Medical University. Currently, DHC Software’s solutions cover the core systems of one-quarter of the top 100 hospitals nationwide. Additionally, DHC Software’s smart healthcare solution, iHealth, enables healthcare institutions at all levels to establish regional smart “Health Cloud,” “Hygiene Cloud,” and “Medical Cloud” platforms.

In recent years, DHC Software has successively launched a suite of high-end, data center-based products, including the new generation of data-driven digital hospital system iMedical8.0P, a disease-specific process quality monitoring and evaluation system covering the entire diagnosis and treatment workflow, a DRG-based medical performance monitoring and analysis system, and a DRG-based inpatient medical insurance cost monitoring and analysis system. By providing efficient and practical software tools for healthcare institutions across dimensions such as user experience, comprehensive full-process clinical data acquisition, holistic medical quality control, and efficient data utilization, DHC Software has further solidified its position as a leading enterprise in smart healthcare.

In 2014, DHC Software launched the “Jiankangle” brand, positioned in the internet healthcare sector. Focusing on health management and disease management, it serves as a high-quality platform providing closed-loop internet healthcare services. Jiankangle covers the entire medical service process, including pre-hospital, in-hospital, and post-hospital stages, while encompassing all key stakeholders in the healthcare industry, such as individuals, physicians, clinics, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies.

Currently, the Donghua Disease Management Program has been implemented in multiple hospitals and departments, including Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Beijing Hospital, Nanfang Hospital, and Sunshine Ronghe Hospital. Physicians can use the Jiankangle Cloud Follow-up APP to publish their consultation schedules and cancellation notices in real time, as well as regularly send disease-related knowledge and precautions to patients with chronic conditions. Patients can consult physicians remotely, collect health data via wearable devices, access popular science articles, and establish personal health records without leaving home. Additionally, Jiankangle provides a professional patient escort team to help patients navigate the healthcare system more efficiently, saving them time, effort, and money. By integrating online and offline services, the program creates a streamlined chronic disease management workflow to better serve both physicians and patients.

As of the end of August 2016, the total number of patients enrolled in the Jiankangle Cloud Follow-up system had reached 50,000, with an average weekly increase of approximately 2,000 new patients. As a mobile health tool tailored for hospitals and physicians, Jiankangle Cloud Follow-up has replaced traditional telephone-based follow-ups with WeChat and app-based methods. By leveraging tools such as health education, doctor-patient interaction, and bulk messaging, the system effectively helps healthcare professionals improve patient management efficiency and enhance the quality of medical services. It is also playing an increasingly important role in breaking down information silos among hospitals at all levels and promoting tiered diagnosis and treatment.

The strategic partnership between IBM, with its advanced capabilities in medical big data processing and analysis, and Donghua Software, which boasts a large user base of high-end electronic medical record (EMR) systems and corresponding software products, has formed a precision medicine R&D consortium that leverages their complementary strengths. This collaboration aims to address their respective shortcomings in precision medicine and jointly develop big data-driven precision medicine technologies.

Strategic Alliance and Technological Upgrade to Capture the Medical and Elderly Care Market

Under the cooperation agreement, IBM granted Donghua Software technical achievements primarily in three areas: a precision medicine research and analysis platform to assist medical experts and data analysts in efficiently processing big data–driven medical information and conducting clinical research oriented toward precision medicine; workflows and methodologies for disease risk prediction models, leveraging advanced algorithms such as machine learning to develop big data–based predictive models for relevant diseases; and patient stratification workflows and methodologies, which categorize patients into distinct subgroups based on clinical similarities among individuals, thereby laying the foundation for personalized precision treatment.

Building on these technological achievements, Donghua Software will leverage its extensive experience in clinical application system solutions and its robust electronic medical record (EMR) database to further develop applications, rapidly transforming the aforementioned intellectual property into market-ready products. This will result in a more powerful big data software system for precision medicine. Meanwhile, Donghua Software will accelerate the transformation of its healthcare information systems from business-driven to data-driven models. This product evolution will inevitably drive simultaneous expansion in both existing and new markets.

Su Mingliang, Senior Vice President of the Healthcare Division at Donghua Software and the technical coordinator for this collaboration, stated, “Through joint R&D efforts by Donghua Software and IBM in the field of precision medicine, the resulting products and services will open up numerous channels for cooperation with hospitals and research institutions, transform existing clinical research models, and create new market growth. Meanwhile, the outcomes of this collaboration can be integrated into Donghua Software’s existing healthcare systems and products such as Donghua Health Le, upgrading them into a new generation of data-driven medical information systems. This will further enhance the intelligence level of these products and increase their added value.” It is easy to understand that this rise in added value will further improve the company’s gross margin levels and boost its profitability.

Taking this collaboration as a starting point, IBM and DHC 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 specific conditions within the field of oncology-related diseases, with the platform designed to support analytical work for additional indications in the future. It is understood that during the first year, the two parties will conduct joint research and development focused on these three oncology-related conditions, specifically addressing the establishment of risk prediction models and the methodological frameworks for identifying similar patient cohorts. In the future, building upon the first year’s research outcomes, both sides will deepen their cooperation in other disease areas, such as chronic disease management. This implies that phased results are expected to emerge within one year, while chronic disease management holds significant market potential in China.

On October 11, the 28th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensive Deepening of Reforms reviewed and approved the “Several Opinions on Fully Opening the Elderly Care Service Market and Improving the Quality of Elderly Care Services,” proposing to lower market entry barriers and guide social capital into the elderly care service industry.In fact, the elderly care service industry has received significant attention from the state in recent years. In 2013, the State Council conducted top-level design for China’s elderly care service system and issued the Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Elderly Care Service Industry, incorporating the construction of the elderly care service system into the national strategy. Subsequently, relevant departments under the State Council issued more than 30 supporting documents concerning encouraging social forces to participate in the development of the elderly care service industry, standardizing the management of service fees in elderly care institutions, cultivating talent for the elderly care service industry, and allocating land for elderly care service facilities. In June 2016, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) explicitly stated that comprehensively improving the quality of elderly care services is a crucial reform measure to address population aging and resolve difficult issues in economic and social development. Local governments have also formulated a series of supporting policies. Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and other regions have successively enacted special local regulations on elderly care services, while various localities have sequentially introduced measures such as subsidies for home- and community-based elderly care, information technology platforms, and government procurement of services.

Data from the National Working Commission on Aging shows that China’s current consumer demand in the elderly care services market exceeds RMB 3 trillion and is projected to reach RMB 5 trillion by around 2050. The elderly care service industry covers multiple sectors, including food, clothing, housing, transportation, daily living assistance, product manufacturing, medical services, and cultural, fitness, and entertainment activities. With its broad scope and extensive industrial chain, the elderly care industry is poised for another surge in growth under policy support.

By continuously breaking through domestic technological bottlenecks in precision medicine and chronic disease management in partnership with IBM, Donghua Software is poised to emerge as a standout player in the trillion-yuan integrated medical and elderly care market, leveraging its extensive experience and robust capabilities accumulated over many years.