Data to give welfare shot in the arm

Nationwide medical platform planned to meet growing healthcare demand

The Chinese government will build up a big data platform across the country to better meet the growing demand for health and medical services.

The decision was made at an executive meeting of the State Council, China's Cabinet, presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

"Enhancing the development of medical big data is a pressing task now. It is also an important project for better public welfare, in the context of the growing need for health and medical services," Li said. "This goes hand-in-hand with the development of the country's new economy."

He mentioned that big data platform is developing quite rapidly in the medical industry in some parts of China, referring to his recent trip to Southwest China's Guizhou province.

The central government plans to make medical and health data part of the country's national big data strategy, connecting provincial and lower level platforms in a national health platform that will help improve the government's management of major public health issues and better meet the demand for health and medical services across the country.

"The platform will drive the growth of the sector to better meet people's health needs," the premier said.

More efforts will be made to collect medical data and build health information platforms at different levels, which will require efforts from multiple departments.

These platforms will make medical consultations more convenient and make medical insurance schemes portable nationwide, allowing for direct expense settlement at the provincial level.

The government also plans to strengthen regulation and legislation to ensure the medical big data platforms are secure and protect personal information.

Zhou Bing, executive director of the China Mobile Health Research Institute, said more than 8 billion outpatient treatments are conducted across the country each year, which generates enormous data every day, along with that produced by the nation's 20 million healthcare practitioners and 990,000 medical institutes.

The State Council meeting sends a clear message that medical data will be utilized to provide more convenient and targeted treatment, Zhou said.