In China, high-tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent have made healthcare a priority for years, and are testing their solutions in the local market before going global. After focusing on telemedicine and drug tracking systems, they are now very much interested in artificial intelligence (AI), the New York Times analyzed in an article published in early February, 2018.
« Their aggressive push underscores the differences between the health-care systems in China and the US, » the authors of the article Sui-Lee Wee et Paul Mozur said.
AI: China seeks to become leader in the market by 2030
The government encourages companies to invest in high tech in order to gain competitiveness. Beijing has said it wants to be one of the leaders in the AI sector by 2030 and pledged to take on the US in the field, New York Times said. While officials have emphasized the use of artificial intelligence in areas like defense and autonomous cars, they have also actively promoted its use in the healthcare industry.
Alibaba and Tencent stand out already
The initiatives launched by Chinese companies in the health tech market have not met with the same success, the US newspaper noted. In 2014, Alibaba announced a « future hospital » plan intended to enable patients to consult doctors online and order drugs via the internet. But two years later, Chinese regulators stopped the sale of over-the-counter drugs on Tmall, the group’s e-commerce website, and suspended a drug monitoring system that the company had created.
In addition, in 2017, Baidu, that created China’s most popular search engine, abandoned its online healthcare service, which allowed patients to book doctors appointments via an app, to focus solely on artificial intelligence.
In the USA, Amazon and its partners, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway, see technology as a way to provide simplified and affordable medical services. « Although the alliance is still in the early stages, it could create online services for medical advice or use its overall heft to negotiate for lower drug prices, » Sui-Lee Wee et Paul Mozur said.
« It’s fair to say that across the board, the Chinese tech companies have all embraced being involved in and being active in the health-care space, unlike the US, where some of them have and some have not, » said Laura Nelson Carney, Asia-Pacific healthcare analyst at Bernstein Research (USA). « Few of them have made moves as big as in China. »
VoxelCloud is revolutionizing the analysis of medical images in China
Advances in the field of artificial intelligence have already begun to help China’s doctors, who are overworked.
A diagnosis made in one minute
Dr Yu Weihong, an ophthalmologist at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said she used to take up to two days to analyze a patient’s eyes by examining grainy images before discussing her findings with her colleagues and writing up a report. Artificial intelligence software being tested by the hospital helps her a lot. Now, making a diagnosis takes her less than a minute, she said to The New York Times.
The software has been developed by VoxelCloud, a California-based start-up that has raised approximately US$28.5 million (€2 m) from companies including Tencent and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital (Silicon Valley). It specializes in automated analysis of medical images, helping ophthalmic physicians to detect diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness among the working-age population in China.
AI could help China to fix the doctor shortage
A program for all people with diabetes to undergo eye tests
There are only twenty ophthalmologists for every million people in China. In April 2017, the government announced an ambitious plan for the country’s 110 million diabetics to undergo eye tests. VoxelCloud technology will be a major asset to carry out this program.
Founded in 2016, VoxelCloud, that has offices in Los Angeles (USA), Shanghai and Suzhou (China), is waiting for the green light of China’s version of the Food and Drug Administration for five diagnostic tools for CAT scans and retina disease.
Yitu: a software that automates the identification of early signs of lung cancer
« Behind this push is a realization that the country’s health-care system is in crisis, » The New York Times journalists said. With no functioning primary care system, patients flock to hospitals in major cities. Some even camp out overnight just to get treatment for a fever. Results: Chinese hospitals are overburdened (1.5 doctors for every 1,000 people), doctors are overworked, relationship between patients and healthcare professionals is critical to such an extent that reports of assaults by patients are not uncommon.
In addition, the Chinese population is aging rapidly and the country also has the largest number of children suffering from obesity and people with diabetes in the world.
Yunfeng, the personal investment fund of Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma, has invested in Yitu, that hopes to address the shortfall of resources. Yitu is working with Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital to develop AI-based software that automates the identification of early signs of lung cancer. Lin Chenxi, who left Alibaba to co-create Yitu in 2012, said he hoped to use the technology to ensure equal access to medical treatment across China (The New York Times).
China: spending in health tech industry to reach US$150 billion by 2020
In total, more than 130 companies are exploring AI to improve the efficiency of China’s healthcare system, according to Yiou Intelligence, an Beijing-based industry consultancy.
US$2.7 billion invested in China’s healthcare companies in 2017
There is also an increase in the number of investments in the sector. In August 2017, venture capital firms including Sequoia and Matrix Partners had invested at least US$2.7 billion (€2.2 billion) in such businesses, Yiou revealed. Analysts at Bernstein Research estimated that spending in China’s health tech industry will reach US$150 billion (€122b) by 2020.