Li Datao, Founder of VBPulse, Appointed Vice President of Smart Healthcare Branch of China National Health Industry Enterprise Management Association

On November 11, 2015, the inaugural meeting of the Smart Healthcare Branch of the China Health Industry Enterprise Management Association was officially held at the National People’s Congress Conference Center. Li Datao from VCBeat was elected as Vice President.

Group Photo of Attendees

Smart Healthcare: A Strategic Direction for Modern MedicineThe concept of smart healthcare originates from the notion of smart cities and represents a strategic direction for the development of modern medicine and medical services. Smart healthcare emphasizes a people-centric approach, re-linking and aggregating medical resources to respond to individualized needs and improve the experience of medical services. Traditional medical experiences have often been technology-centered and physician-centered. However, throughout thousands of years of medical history, humanistic care has always been the core concern of medical services. Especially in today’s highly informatized era, it is even more crucial for medical services to return to a people-centric model, reconcile current complex medical conflicts, and truly reflect profound human wisdom. Whether shifting from a physician- and hospital-centered service model to a patient-individual-centered one, or managing interventions in basic biomedicine and public health at the population level, smart healthcare holds significant promise.

The Smart Healthcare Branch of the China National Health Industry Enterprise Management Association is a non-profit social organization dedicated to industry-level management and coordination of the production, operation, research and development, and promotion activities of enterprises involved in smart healthcare across China. The establishment of the Smart Healthcare Branch will provide support and services to enterprises engaged in technological R&D, production, operations, and social services related to the smart healthcare industry, including those in medical internet, medical information management, big data analytics in healthcare, traditional Health Information Technology (HIT), regional healthcare information infrastructure, and wearable medical devices.

The establishment of the Smart Healthcare Branch has created a brand-new platform under the China Health Industry Enterprise Management Association. This platform brings together entrepreneurs from the Internet Healthcare Entrepreneurship Alliance, aggregates resources from thousands of hospitals, and leverages powerful vertical new media promotion in the internet sector. Driven by capital markets, the Smart Healthcare Branch is better positioned to fulfill its service role in the new era of “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation,” advancing the novel concept of smart healthcare and ensuring its practical implementation.

It is understood that the China Health Industry Enterprise Management Association (CHIEMA) is a national-level social organization with industry service and management functions, operating under the professional supervision of the National Health and Family Planning Commission and registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The Smart Healthcare Branch is a secondary branch subordinate to CHIEMA. Currently, the Smart Healthcare Branch comprises several divisions, including the Regional Healthcare Division, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Incubation Division, Medical Information Security Division, Investment and Financing Division, Wearable Devices Division, Health and Elderly Care Division, and Mobile Healthcare Division.

Dou Xizhao, President of the China National Health Industry Enterprise Management Association, stated in his address that smart healthcare achieves informatization by establishing regional medical information platforms and leveraging advanced Internet of Things (IoT) and digital technologies to facilitate interaction among patients, medical personnel, healthcare institutions, and medical devices. In the near future, the healthcare industry will integrate more high-tech solutions, such as artificial intelligence and sensor technology, enabling medical services to become truly intelligent and driving the prosperous development of the healthcare sector.

Dou Xizhao, President of the China Association for Health Industry Enterprise Management, Delivers a Speech

The sustainable development of smart healthcare must recognize the dualistic reality of Chinese society. China’s vast territory features uneven economic development between the east and west. The developed eastern regions have reached levels comparable to those of developed countries; their core demand is for market-driven allocation of medical resources to maximize efficiency. Their needs for healthcare services are primarily reflected in differentiated, personalized care and an emphasis on the end-to-end patient experience. In contrast, the vast central and western regions have only recently entered the stage of moderate prosperity, with a large rural population still working to alleviate poverty. Their core demand is for equity in healthcare services—providing basic, reliable healthcare to the broader population as a form of public social welfare. Their need for healthcare services focuses on expanding the coverage of primary care and delivering affordable, standardized medical services to the general public. Faced with these significantly different demands, smart healthcare must respond flexibly: vigorously developing various applications that meet differentiated medical needs in economically developed areas, while focusing on building healthcare informatization infrastructure in less developed regions to reduce medical costs and expand the coverage of guaranteed medical services.

President Dou Xizhao stated that smart healthcare is on the verge of a significant period of comprehensive development. China’s 13th Five-Year Plan explicitly outlines national development strategies such as health and medical care, “Internet+,” and national big data, providing clear strategic direction for the growth of the smart healthcare industry. The “46321” project for regional healthcare informatization, established during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, will continue to be implemented and promoted throughout the 13th Five-Year Plan period. With extensive participation from private capital, it is highly likely that regional healthcare informatization upgrades will be completed in all second-tier cities and a large number of third-tier cities during this period. This will provide high-quality data sources and operational support platforms for numerous smart healthcare projects. Meanwhile, various national support policies in the field of smart healthcare will be successively implemented, inevitably triggering a new wave of innovation and entrepreneurship. Whether through internal innovation initiatives within large enterprises or the creative sparks from startups engaged in mass entrepreneurship and innovation, all participants will compete and achieve rapid growth amidst this surging tide of smart healthcare development.

Dai Tao, a researcher and director of the Expert Committee of the Smart Healthcare Branch, pointed out that the mission of smart healthcare is to comprehensively apply new methods and applications of computer science and technology—namely the Internet, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, cloud computing, and mobile computing, along with artificial intelligence and government decision support—throughout all aspects and stages of health medical services, in order to jointly address the new challenges in healthcare.

Gao Yanjie, a member of the expert panel on medical informatization under the former Ministry of Health, stated that smart healthcare is a medical system that comprehensively applies technologies such as the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), data fusion, transmission and exchange, cloud computing, and metropolitan area networks. It integrates medical infrastructure with IT infrastructure through information technology, centers on a “Medical Cloud Data Center,” transcends the temporal and spatial limitations of traditional healthcare systems, and enables intelligent decision-making to achieve optimal healthcare services.

Smart healthcare must be underpinned by next-generation information technologies. Debates over whether “Internet + Healthcare” or “Healthcare + Internet” should take the lead or play a supporting role are, in fact, unhelpful to the development of smart healthcare. Every technological innovation in clinical medicine has left a brilliant mark on the history of human scientific and technological progress. Meanwhile, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things—driving forces behind the Fourth Industrial Revolution—can significantly improve the efficiency of healthcare resource allocation, substantially reduce the cost of medical services, and benefit a broader population. Therefore, smart healthcare is a symbiotic entity resulting from the integrated development of information technology and medical technology.

Appendix: List of Members of the First Smart Healthcare Branch of the China Health Industry Enterprise Management Association

Consultant:

Li Baoluo: Former Director of the Information Center, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences; Former Vice President of the China Health Information Association

Li Junde: Vice President of the China Association of Chinese Medicine

Duan Zhongying: Founder of the CCTV Program “Health Road”

Li Qi: Director of the Smart City Research Center, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University; Doctoral Supervisor

Zhang Bing: Director of the Sports and Health Science Research Center at Tsinghua University, Doctoral Supervisor

Zhang Weijian: President of the Gene Technology Research and Application Professional Committee, China Health Industry Enterprise Management Association

Zheng Lili: Director, Department of Investigation and Research, Chinese Hospital Association

Executive Vice President and Secretary-General:

Liu Dangjun (Head of the Reserve Team, Smart Healthcare Branch, China Health Industry Enterprise Management Association)

Vice President:

Li Datao (Founder of VCBeat)

Sun Mingming (Director of the Academic Affairs Department, Henan Medical Association; Vice Chairman, Henan Nursing Association)

Chen Qirui (Founder of DXY)

Yao Ya (Co-founder and COO, Shanghai Beilian Technology Co., Ltd.)

Zhang Bo (Chairman of the Board, Daotian Technology Co., Ltd.)

Xu Zhongying (Chairman of Yemai Network Technology Co., Ltd.)

Geng Junqiang (Head of the Informatics Group, Chinese Society of General Practice, Chinese Medical Association)

Sun Hongtao (Founder of Dajia Medical Alliance Doctor Group)

Huang Xudong (Professor, Institute of Actuarial Science, Central University of Finance and Economics)

Yang Min (Founder & CEO, Zhongmai Internet Technology Co., Ltd.)

Wang Jiexiao (President of Hunan Provincial Industrial and Commercial Rehabilitation Center, Chairman of Hunan Jiukang Medical Investment Co., Ltd.)

Zeng Mingfa (Founder and Chairman, Kangkang Blood Pressure)

Yu Haibo (President of Topsec)

Bai Hesong (Managing Director, Chuanqi Shengshi Health Technology Co., Ltd.)