Healthcare + Technology, Adding Power to Health (World Health Day Special)

April 7 is World Health Day. The World Health Organization has set this year’s theme as “Working together to promote health and firmly support science.” The National Health Commission has designated the theme for promotion as “Sharing technological innovation and working together to promote health.” From remote diagnosis and treatment, to AI-assisted diagnosis, to wearable devices and health big-data management, the ongoing push for whole-of-population health digitalization and intelligence keeps accelerating, helping continuously improve people’s health levels.

——Editor

Qingzhen City, Guizhou Province

AI doctors have come to the village

Reporter Su Bin

“Everyone check again that you’ve brought your ID card. If there’s nothing wrong, line up and get on the bus!” On the morning of April 7 at 9:00 a.m., in Heini Shao Village, Chaofeng Subdistrict, Qingzhen City, Guizhou Province, village doctor Jin De Kai held a loudhailer and guided elderly villagers to board the bus in an orderly manner. Coinciding with World Health Day, the village health clinic organized free checkups for residents aged 60 and above to go to the community health service center in Chaofeng Subdistrict.

“This is the first time we’ve held an activity on World Health Day. It’s all thanks to the village’s ‘AI doctor.’ It improves the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment, giving us more time and energy to do public health services,” Jin De Kai said.

Heini Shao Village has 1,381 villagers, yet the village health clinic has only 4 doctors. Since 2024, in response to shortcomings such as insufficient primary-level medical resources and limited standards of diagnosis and treatment, Qingzhen City has used the deployment and application of “AI doctors” as a starting point, investing 31 million yuan to build a county-level medical data center and promoting full coverage across the county’s county, township, and village levels for an AI-assisted medical system. Data from all 252 medical institutions across the county has been made interoperable.

In June 2025, Heini Shao Village Health Clinic connected to the “AI doctor” system. Its powerful data analytics provide recommendations for village doctors’ diagnoses. “‘The AI doctor’ is an intelligent helper and expert assistant for village doctors. It helps us make diagnoses more precise and more comprehensive. Even when we encounter complex cases, we don’t panic,” Jin De Kai said.

Not long ago, a 7-year-old child, Chen Zitong, had a fever and diarrhea, and also had headaches. Her family brought her to the health clinic. Jin De Kai opened the AI system and entered the symptoms described by the child’s parents. The system then provided prompts: Have you had contact with patients with a cold? Are you allergic to anything? Have you eaten anything unclean?

After receiving a negative answer, the system listed diagnostic suggestions: First do an ultrasound (B-ultrasound) to rule out intestinal obstruction. If it’s a digestive problem, you can use montmorillonite powder and probiotics to regulate the intestines; if it’s a viral cold, use antiviral medications—if there’s also a cough… “Don’t worry. The child’s condition matches the symptoms of colds common in the current season. You don’t need to do a B-ultrasound first. Take the medicine for 3 days to observe. If symptoms improve, continue taking the medicine. If symptoms worsen, come to the health clinic immediately.” Based on the “AI doctor” diagnostic results, Jin De Kai gave his own diagnosis.

Jin De Kai said, “The ‘AI doctor’ can conduct professional analysis of illnesses and provide professional guidance. For village doctors, it’s like having an expert assistant. It effectively makes up for weaknesses in the scope of their work, and improves diagnostic and treatment capability for common conditions and some complex conditions during patient intake. Our confidence in seeing patients has increased noticeably. Of course, the ‘AI doctor’ is only for assistance; you can’t just copy everything. We will combine our own medical knowledge and experience to make diagnoses,” Jin De Kai said.

Since the comprehensive rollout in 2025, Qingzhen City’s “AI doctors” have served more than 290k person-times. The assisted-use rate of “AI doctors” in primary outpatient services has reached 30.03%.

Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

A robot becomes a physical therapy practitioner

Reporter Dou Hanyang

On April 7, in the community health service center in Jiubao Subdistrict, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, a new physical-therapy activity was opened to nearby residents.

In the acupuncture and massage department, a robot “physical therapy practitioner” is waving its robotic arm, providing traditional Chinese medicine physical therapy to residents lying face down on a bed. “Can I try it?” Xu Heng asked when he stopped by the service center after work. He had been sitting in front of a computer all day, and his lower back and upper body felt sore.

“In your case, it falls under the category of muscles in the lower back being under static contraction for a long time during long periods of sitting, which leads to insufficient local blood supply and excessive buildup of muscle lactic acid. We can massage and adjust it,” the doctor provided a targeted treatment plan.

With that said, the doctor operated the tablet computer on the physical-therapy robot. On the screen, specific acupoints and techniques were selected. The robotic arm of the robot started up slowly, precisely hovering over the acupoint area on Xu Heng’s lower back. As the crisp “da-da” sound rang out, the physical-therapy service began.

“The technique is great!” After half an hour of physical therapy, Xu Heng sat up and turned his body, and the soreness eased quite a bit. “It’s meaningful to get a new experience on World Health Day.”

Chen Feng, the secretary and director of the service center, introduced that this is a rehabilitation robot developed by Kecheng Embodied Intelligent Robots (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. The company负责人, Luo Wen, said the robot can quickly and accurately identify 74 acupoints on the human back, and it’s skilled in shockwave and thermal radiofrequency. More importantly, based on the physical therapist’s treatment plan, it can assist with massages, moxibustion, and more, greatly reducing doctors’ mechanized physical labor.

“Our center sees an average of 50 outpatient visits per day. More than 60% of them require massage and physical therapy, but the department has only 4 doctors,” Chen Feng said—busy from morning to night.

A practitioner in the acupuncture and massage department for more than 6 years, Zhao Tianwen, felt deeply about this. He and his colleagues have different degrees of strain or wear-and-tear in their cervical spine, lumbar spine, wrists, and so on. “Massage and physical therapy isn’t only a technical job—it’s also physical work!”

Even experienced doctors may have precise techniques and just the right force, but it’s difficult to replicate their experience at scale. “In recent years, more and more people are choosing TCM physical therapy. We need to reconstruct the service model from the technical foundation,” Chen Feng said.

In November 2024, three departments including the National Health Commission issued the “Reference Guidance on Application Scenarios for Artificial Intelligence in the Health-Related Industry.” It mentions building acupuncture and massage robots by using AI technology to achieve intelligent diagnosis and treatment for traditional non-drug therapies such as acupuncture and massage. At the end of last year, Shangcheng District launched an “Artificial Intelligence +” scenario traction project that directly targets pain points in community health service centers.

In November 2025, through matchmaking by relevant government departments, the service center and Kecheng Company jointly built a robot physical-therapy application scenario. The service center provides doctors and scenarios, while Kecheng Company provides technology and products. Both sides jointly explore the application of artificial intelligence in the field of physical therapy.

“ We formed a digital expert database. In the first batch, we recorded 10 physical therapy experts with an average of 40 years of clinical experience. We converted their physical therapy techniques into data, and then generated standardized execution plans—‘fed’ to the robot,” Luo Wen said. From the team’s perspective, physical-therapy robots must have four capabilities: visual perception, tactile force control, motion control, and deep learning.

Traditional physical therapists locate acupoints based on experience and feel. But robots can use deep-vision cameras to complete 3D modeling of the human back in 1 second, identify acupoints, and keep error within 3 millimeters.

“However, robots can only assist humans and can’t fully replace them. Specific medical judgments and treatment plans still need to be led by doctors,” Luo Wen said. “After a year and a half of validation in real scenarios, physical-therapy robots have accumulated enough experience and can gradually enter hospitals, nursing homes, sports rehabilitation centers, and other institutions to serve more people.”

Xiqing District, Tianjin

The medical community has “four clouds”

Reporter Gong Xiangjuan

“Uncle Wang, I’m Yang Ru, your health management officer for your contracted family doctor team. The hospital system shows your blood sugar data is unstable. It’s recommended that you come in for a check as soon as possible, and I’ll help you schedule an appointment.” On April 7, Yang Ru, a staff member at the Jinmenhu Subdistrict Community Health Service Center in Xiqing District, Tianjin, called local residents.

After the Jinmenhu Subdistrict Community Health Service Center joined the Xiqing District digital medical community in 2024, health management officers, with the help of intelligent health-management agents, checked residents’ health indicators and service progress one by one for contracted patients, so that people can have “minor illnesses treated in the community, rehabilitation done in the community, and health management handled by someone.”

In recent years, Xiqing District has innovated its operating model, with Xiqing Hospital and Xiqing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine as the leaders. Together with 11 community health service centers, it has formed a closely integrated medical community in Xiqing District. By leveraging digital enablement to build a digital health community, it has set up a “four clouds” platform, promoting digital upgrades of primary-level medical and health services.

“ The ‘cloud management’ platform creates a unified management platform among member units of the medical community, improving management efficiency. The ‘cloud pharmacy’ platform establishes a ‘shared prescription’ within the medical community, effectively improving primary medical institutions’ capacity to guarantee drug supply. It also uses AI prescription-review technology to implement end-to-end supervision of medication safety. The ‘cloud services’ platform provides residents with multi-form, multi-level medical and health management services. It is equipped with health management officers as assistants to general practitioners and family doctor teams, improving the efficiency of medical services and contracted services. The ‘cloud check’ platform builds a service model of ‘primary-level checks, senior-level diagnosis,’ enabling sharing of check and test results as well as sharing of high-quality medical resources,” the explanation continued.

In April 2025, the “Respiratory Chronic Disease Digital Therapy Center” at the Beizhongzhen Community Health Service Center in Xiqing District, Tianjin, was officially unveiled and put into operation. Leveraging intelligent equipment, the center provides patients with personalized and fine-grained medication guidance, significantly improving the correct operation rate of inhalation devices and treatment adherence. In addition, the “Respiratory Chronic Disease Digital Therapy Center” also innovatively launched a “distinctive service package for contracted family doctors,” realizing data-driven, precise prescription decisions based on digital therapies, and providing patients with continuous and dynamic health monitoring services.

Digital enablement helps residents enjoy “higher-efficiency” health services.

Xiqing District’s closely integrated medical community has launched a two-way referral system, smoothing the referral channels and making it easier for people to receive care.

At the Beizhongzhen Community Health Service Center in Xiqing District, a 68-year-old diabetes patient, Wang Aiqin (a pseudonym), frequently comes to the community hospital to check her blood sugar and get prescriptions. Not long ago, she felt unwell. The community hospital examined her, and the electrocardiogram showed abnormal cardiac function. Given her disease history, the community hospital immediately initiated a “one-click referral” service in the system. After the patient was referred, she could get a free appointment number and be seen quickly via a green channel. Before Wang Aiqin arrived at the referral hospital, the community hospital system had already automatically uploaded her long-term blood sugar monitoring records, medication plan, and related check and test results, so the receiving referral hospital could fully grasp her condition.

After inpatient treatment, Wang Aiqin’s information was automatically sent back to the community hospital as well, for subsequent rehabilitation guidance and review.

Behind the idea of “more runs for information and fewer errands for the public” is Xiqing District’s closely integrated medical community, where data is shared and made interoperable—so information connects in real time and issues are handled in a coordinated way.

“Community health service centers can rely on the ‘cloud pharmacy’ within the ‘four clouds’ digital platform built for Xiqing District to provide supplemental guarantees for community drugs and also provide a door-to-door delivery service,” Zhu Jiayue, director of the Jinmenhu Subdistrict Community Health Service Center in Xiqing District, introduced. Before a prescription is issued, the three-medical-union risk control system embedded in the community hospital’s work system automatically reviews the compliance and reasonableness of the prescription—for example, it can remind against overprescribing, warn about combination medications with potential drug interactions, and remind patients with certain underlying diseases to use certain drugs with caution or avoid them. It is like an “AI pharmacist” that intelligently reviews prescriptions end to end, improving medication safety levels.