Digital News

　　The foundation for hospital informatization has been firmly established; more than 40 AI imaging products have received Class III certification; and applications like Ant AQ connect users to vast medical resources, enhancing diagnostic and treatment efficiency while expanding healthcare accessibility… Today, digital and intelligent healthcare applications are rapidly rolling out, emerging as a key driver reshaping the industry ecosystem.

　　Experts note that propelled by technological breakthroughs and policy incentives, digital and intelligent healthcare is rapidly advancing toward creating a more efficient, intelligent, and inclusive medical ecosystem—ultimately shifting from a “disease-focused” model to a “health-centered” system that serves the entire population.

　　Technological Integration Driving Sustained Empowerment

　　At the recently concluded 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, the deep integration of brain-computer interfaces and AI technology emerged as a standout highlight. BrainCo unveiled a 383-gram intelligent bionic hand that uses electromyographic and electroneurographic signal recognition technology to deliver sub-millimeter precision down to 0.1 mm. It can not only lift objects weighing up to 20 kilograms but also precisely replicate the gripping force of a human hand.

　　SLEEMON and BrainCo have jointly launched the “Baobao·BrainCo” AI mattress, which uses EEG monitoring combined with dynamic intervention to create a closed-loop sleep health management system that shifts from “passive monitoring” to “active response,” offering a digital solution for the vast population suffering from sleep disorders.

　　In AI-assisted diagnostics, the Bianshi AI TCM Four-Diagnostic Instrument combines multimodal analysis of tongue, facial, pulse, and inquiry diagnostics to deliver personalized health intervention plans in just three minutes, helping to address challenges such as the shortage of TCM practitioners at the grassroots level.

　　In June this year, Alibaba Cloud issued the 2025 White Paper on AI Applications in the Healthcare Industry, revealing that by the end of 2024, there were 101 registered AI models and algorithms offering products and services for AI medical applications, showing a steady upward trend. These registered models cover a broad range of functions, with inquiry dialogues accounting for 48%, health assessment and consultation 24%, medical record generation and structured report creation 14%, and assisted diagnosis 5%. They also include generative models and applications for TCM consultations, medical equipment guidance, pharmaceutical Q&A, AI assistants for medical insurance policy, medical research support, medical record retrieval and analysis, and emergency rescue.

　　Qiao Yu, Assistant Director of the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, noted that Generative AI 2.0 is fundamentally transforming the smart healthcare landscape. Moving beyond deep learning to multimodal large models, AI has evolved from specialized intelligence to general intelligence. Large Model 2.0’s breakthroughs in reasoning and cognition have laid a solid foundation for medical applications.

　　Experts highlight that in recent years, the rapid advancement of digital and intelligent technologies, particularly generative AI represented by large-scale models, has brought new opportunities to healthcare. Today, AI has deeply penetrated all aspects of the healthcare sector, serving as a vital link connecting medical institutions, research institutes, pharmaceutical companies, and patients, and driving the establishment of a more efficient, intelligent, and personalized healthcare ecosystem.

　　Steady Stream of Policy Incentives

　　In recent years, China has implemented a series of robust measures to support digital and intelligent healthcare, with AI advancing hand in hand with informatization efforts.

　　In November 2024, the National Health Commission, together with several other departments, released the Reference Guidelines for AI Application Scenarios in the Healthcare Industry, clarifying 84 application scenarios across four key categories. The scenarios—particularly in medical service management and essential public health services—address every aspect of primary healthcare and health management.

　　The Announcement of the National Medical Products Administration on Measures to Optimize Lifecycle Supervision and Support the Innovative Development of High-End Medical Devices, issued in July 2025, emphasizes the continued implementation of special review procedures for domestically pioneered, internationally leading high-end medical devices with significant clinical value and calls for streamlining change registration requirements for AI-powered medical devices where the core algorithm remains unchanged but the algorithm performance has been enhanced. Additionally, it highlights the need to accelerate the development of industry standards for products such as exoskeleton robots.

　　On August 1, the National Intelligent Healthcare Security Contest 2025 officially kicked off, breaking down industry barriers for the first time. Spanning over ten sectors, including healthcare, drug research and development, and financial insurance, it aims to facilitate cross-domain integration between medical insurance data from the Yangtze River Delta and Shanghai’s public basic data.

　　“After data masking, some medical insurance data from the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta will be made available within a fully secure, trusted data environment for the finalist teams to deploy on-site,” said Huang Huabo, Deputy Director of the National Healthcare Security Administration. He noted that this competition marks the first cross-regional aggregation of medical insurance data and the first attempt to integrate such data with those from other industries. This initiative will facilitate seamless data connectivity between medical insurance and other industries, while encouraging participation from medical institutions, research institutes, universities, and corporate R&D centers, thereby empowering various industries through medical insurance data.

　　In drug administration, the Notice on Strengthening the Collection and Application of Drug Traceability Codes in the Fields of Healthcare Security and Work Injury Insurance, jointly issued by the National Healthcare Security Administration and three other departments, requires that “Starting July 1, 2025, drug traceability codes must be scanned at the point of sale before medical insurance fund settlement can proceed. From January 1, 2026, all medical institutions will be required to fully collect and upload these codes.” With the help of big data and intelligent models, medical insurance supervision is shifting from “passive review” to “proactive interception,” helping to curb practices such as fraudulent procurement of drugs and insurance fraud.

　　Regarding the advancement of digital services, by the end of June 2025, over 1,236 million people across China had activated and begun using their medical insurance codes. Whether seeking treatment locally or in another city, insured individuals can settle bills instantly by presenting their code, significantly simplifying the medical service process.

　　Moving TowardFull-Chain Restructuring

　　In March this year, the China Hospital Information Management Association (CHIMA) released the Report on China Hospital Informatization Status Survey 2023-2024, revealing that over 90% of Grade-A tertiary hospitals have completed the deployment of basic information management systems. These systems span multiple areas, including electronic medical records, image archiving and communication systems, and laboratory information management systems.

　　Recently, Hao Jing, Managing Director and Global Partner at Boston Consulting Group, shared a set of data: about 75% of the thousands of companies she tracks have adopted AI strategies. Of these, roughly 30% concentrate on R&D, using AI to speed up target screening and new drug design; another 30% apply AI to marketing and sales, including market data gathering and promotional efforts; and around 10% utilize AI in manufacturing for tasks such as quality control and data analysis.

　　Public data shows that medical imaging and assisted diagnostics, among the more established areas, have seen certain AI applications—like lung nodule detection, retinal lesion analysis, and pathology slide identification—reach accuracy rates as high as 95%. According to incomplete statistics, more than 40 AI imaging products have obtained Class III certification from China’s National Medical Products Administration.

　　For example, the health app AQ, launched by Ant Group in June, offers hundreds of AI-powered functions, including consultations, report interpretation, and health management, connecting users to 5,000 hospitals and nearly a million doctors nationwide. Its “AI Doctor Avatar” technology mimics the diagnostic logic of more than 200 renowned specialists from Grade-A tertiary hospitals. At peak times, the AI avatar of Mao Hongjing, Deputy Director of Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, serves over 110,000 users daily.

　　According to industry insiders, driven by both policy incentives and technological breakthroughs, China’s digital and intelligent healthcare transformation is evolving from isolated innovations to a full-chain restructuring, with accelerated adoption of digital and intelligent applications across the industry.

　　The Implementation Plan for the Digital and Intelligent Transformation of the Pharmaceutical Industry (2025–2030), jointly issued in April by seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, outlines that by 2027, China will achieve breakthroughs in a range of critical digital and intelligent technologies for the pharmaceutical sector, formulate and revise over 30 related industry standards, and develop and promote more than 100 high-performance products across areas such as intelligent pharmaceutical equipment, testing instruments, and industrial software. By 2030, large-scale pharmaceutical companies in China are expected to have largely completed their digital and intelligent transformation, with significantly strengthened capabilities for integrated innovation in these technologies.