Health industry moving into data-driven '4.0 era'

China has marched into the 4.0 era of healthcare service, where more emphasis is laid on healthcare management and more personalized treatment modes emerge, featuring precision, preventability, predictability and patient participation, industry experts said.

Zhang Wei, senior vice-president of BOE Technology Group Co Ltd and chief growth officer of BOE Health, said during the 2023 Future Health Forum held by MIT Technology Review in Hangzhou: "Taking advantage of artificial intelligence, big data and biotechnology, every patient can be offered a treatment plan that best suits them based on their own genetic, physical, psychological, lifestyle and health data. Digital technologies will have a profound influence in healthcare services."

During the forum, Zhang shared BOE's business plans for the future of hospitals and the community. According to BOE, facilities will transform the fragmented data of patients into modular data, and eventually systematic data.

"This is the trend of hospitals' intelligent development," Zhang said.

BOE has also said by building a healthy internet of things cloud platform and health cabins in communities, professional health services will be extended to communities and families so residents won't need to leave their communities to treat minor and chronic diseases.

"With an IoT-empowered healthcare management platform we have integrated data from home, communities and hospitals, bringing full life-cycle healthcare services to patients," Zhang said.

Healthcare management is seen as a growth sector by many. Guangdong province-based online research consultancy ChinaIRN forecast by 2026, China's healthcare management market will reach 522.5 billion yuan ($76 billion).