Reshaping 🏥Healthcare 🏥

Amazon and two other U.S. titans are trying to shake up health care by experimenting with their own employees’ coverage. But by Chinese standards, they’re behind the curve. Technology companies such as Alibaba and Tencent have made health care a priority for years, and are using China as their laboratory. After testing online medical advice and drug-tracking systems, they are now focussed on a more advanced tool: artificial intelligence (AI). Their aggressive push underscores the differences between the health care systems in China and the U.S. Chinese hospitals are overburdened, with just 1.5 doctors for every 1,000 people — barely half the figure in the U.S. Along with a rapidly ageing population, China also has the largest number of obese children in the world, as well as more diabetes patients than anywhere else. The companies’ technological push is being encouraged by the government as Beijing has said it wants to be a leader in AI by 2030 and pledged to take on the U.S. in the field. Alibaba and Tencent, which already dominate China’s e-commerce and mobile payments sectors, are at the forefront. Among their goals: building diagnostic tools that will make doctors more efficient. “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 U.S., where some of them have and some have not,” said Laura Nelson Carney, an Asia-Pacific health care analyst at Bernstein Research. Last year, Alibaba’s health unit introduced AI software that can help interpret CT scans and an AI medical lab to help doctors make diagnoses. About a month later, Tencent unveiled Miying, a medical imaging programme that helps doctors detect early signs of cancer, in the southwestern region of Guangxi. It is now used in nearly 100 hospitals across China. Tencent has also invested in WeDoctor Group, which has opened its own take on Alibaba’s “future hospital” in northwestern China. The service allows patients to video chat with doctors and fill their prescriptions online. What is also helping is that China has fewer concerns about privacy, allowing for easier collection of data that could result in smarter and more efficient AI systems. Analysts at Bernstein estimated that spending in China’s health tech industry will reach $150 billion by 2020. NY TIMES