China is the world's largest market for medical needs. Every year, the China International Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) is a window for medical device manufacturers to showcase their innovative medical products.
The CMEF Spring Expo held in Shanghai recently attracted nearly 5,000 global exhibitors from more than 20 countries, showcasing more than 10,000 innovative medical products.
It is worth noting that before this year's CMEF, the State Council issued the Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"), which provides business opportunities for Chinese and foreign enterprises. The "Action Plan" proposes to promote the iterative upgrading of medical and health institutions' equipment and information facilities, and encourage qualified medical institutions to accelerate the renewal and transformation of medical equipment such as medical imaging, radiotherapy, remote diagnosis and treatment, and surgical robots.
Zheng Shajie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, previously said that with the in-depth promotion of high-quality development, the demand for equipment renewal will continue to expand, and the preliminary estimate is that this is a trillion-level market, and domestic and foreign medical device manufacturers have taken action.
The first financial reporter saw at the CMEF exhibition that some companies' booths this year deliberately opened a special display area for "trade-in", and they have come up with their own superior products to participate in this action. The National Health Commission recently issued comprehensive guidance, proposing to achieve the goal of "full coverage" of medical alliances in all county-level areas by the end of 2027. These guidelines aim to strengthen the capacity building of primary health care institutions. As part of this initiative, more than 500 new community hospitals will be built across the country every year, which will also further boost the demand for medical equipment procurement.
The number of installed products in more than 10 years is "very large"
At Siemens Healthineers' CMEF booth, the first financial reporter noticed that the company set up a special exhibition area of "improving quality and efficiency, leading the trend of equipment replacement", covering the five major areas of digitalization and artificial intelligence, scientific research co-creation, green environmental protection, medical accessibility value improvement and disease diagnosis and treatment.
Siemens Healthineers told the first financial reporter that the large-scale iterative renewal of medical equipment will not only accelerate the upgrading of digital and intelligent technology and promote the transformation of green environmental protection, but also encourage the promotion of scientific research and co-creation, stimulate and improve medical accessibility, so as to accelerate the implementation of medical science and technology innovation achievements and greatly improve the level of medical research and clinical diagnosis and treatment.
Pu Zhengrong, vice president of Siemens Healthineers Greater China and head of clinical treatment system, told the first financial reporter: "The proposal of the trade-in policy is good news for the entire medical market, especially for companies like Siemens Healthineers that have been rooted in China for many years. After the policy was issued, we realized that the number of installed units of Siemens Healthineers in China for more than 10 years should be very large, and the actual service life of our Chinese users is greater than that of foreign users. ”
Pu Zhengrong added that although the equipment in China for more than 10 years is still in good condition and has been playing a "major role" in hospitals, in fact, because the service life of these equipment has been very long, the proposal of the trade-in policy will be conducive to the high-quality development of hospitals in the future.
Lu Jianping, director of the Department of Imaging Medicine at Shanghai Changhai Hospital, previously said that in primary hospitals and community health service centers, the frequency of iterative updates of medical equipment is relatively slow, and some may exceed 10 years of service life. This program allows doctors and patients to use a new generation of equipment, which can effectively improve the level of medical service quality.
According to Hou Yan, chairman of the China Medical Equipment Association, under normal circumstances, the service life of large medical equipment is about 10 years, and the service life of general medical equipment is about 6 to 7 years. The "12th Five-Year Plan" and "13th Five-Year Plan" have promoted the procurement of a large number of medical equipment, and the "14th Five-Year Plan" is just the time for the iteration of medical equipment.
The CBN reporter learned that GE Healthcare has also made eight sets of targeted plans for trade-in. Chen Jinlei, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare China's medical imaging business, told the media that trade-in is not simply a matter of replacing a new device, but also about how to better meet the current clinical needs.
In terms of intelligence, GE Healthcare debuted its innovative IQ Engine, an intelligent imaging platform that integrates data and reality, at CMEF. According to GE Healthcare, this will provide a more cost-effective "refresh" of MR equipment throughout its life cycle, allowing the equipment to obtain better image quality, faster scanning speed, and more accurate diagnosis, and can also customize and expand clinical application functions according to the needs of hospitals, provide a variety of solutions, promote the improvement of clinical diagnosis and treatment level and the construction of specialized specialties in grassroots hospitals, and comprehensively improve the diagnosis and treatment efficiency of hospitals.
Not only multinational medical giants, but also local medical device companies are also aiming at the new opportunities brought by trade-in. Chen Gang, vice president of Kaikai Medical, said during the CMEF that trade-in is a major benefit for all medical device companies, and each company will come up with its own superior products. Taking Kaikai Medical as an example, the company's products in the four major fields of ultrasound medical imaging, digestive and respiratory endoscopy, minimally invasive surgery and cardiovascular intervention have the advantage of "trade-in".
Chen Gang told the first financial reporter: "The country's trade-in policy is actually to stimulate the quality and efficiency of the entire medical treatment, create a homogeneous medical system, improve the overall medical level, truly realize the equalization of high-quality medical resources, and let the people see hope." ”
Yang Jianlong, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Medical Equipment, said that CT, MRI and other equipment are no longer large-scale medical equipment managed according to configuration certificates, and the cycle of update and iteration will also be accelerated. The update and iteration will have a positive impact on improving the level of medical equipment and improving the quality of medical services. With the release of the policy, various provinces have successively carried out the "survey" of the medical equipment industry, and it is expected that more provinces and municipalities will follow up with the introduction of detailed implementation rules.
The first financial reporter learned from the industry that the detailed rules of "trade-in" are expected to be introduced before July this year, and will enter the formal procurement process in July. "At present, we are still in the exploration stage, and governments at all levels are also actively responding to the policy declaration and increasing capital investment in the medical industry, but who pays this money, how to distribute it, and how much the state subsidy is still to be further explored. An industry insider told the first financial reporter.
Trade in the old for the new, now is the time
Professor Ge Junbo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Department of Cardiology at Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, said at a forum hosted by the Shanghai Medical Device Industry Association at this year's CMEF conference: "China's medical device industry will still be in a golden period of development. He emphasized that the development of the medical device industry should be driven by innovation, taking pan-vascular interventional medical devices as an example, intelligent devices will become the future development direction.
According to data released by the Medical Device Supply Chain Association of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, the size of China's medical device market will increase from 623.5 billion yuan in 2019 to 1.25 trillion yuan in 2023. In addition, according to the forecast of the Southern Pharmaceutical Economic Research Institute of the State Food and Drug Administration, by 2025, the operating income of China's medical device manufacturers is expected to exceed 1.8 trillion yuan.
At this year's CMEF exhibition, the first financial reporter noticed that innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence are making traditional medical equipment more powerful, such as ultrasound imaging, a medical technology that has existed for nearly a hundred years, is undergoing profound changes. Today, GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, and some domestic medical device manufacturers are exploring the future application of ultrasound imaging. This also makes the "trade-in" policy more in line with the development trend of technology.
Roland Rott, President and CEO of GE Healthcare's Global Ultrasound Business, said in an exclusive interview with CBN during CMEF: "There is no better time to trade in equipment. ”
Taking ultrasound technology as an example, he said that the development of ultrasound technology is changing with each passing day, and the current ultrasound technology is very different from five or ten years ago. Ultrasound is a visual diagnostic tool that allows you to see what's going on inside the body through the transmission of sound waves. Rott mentioned that one of the big changes is digitalization and AI, including the chips in the device, crystals and materials.
"From this point of view, it is very reasonable to mention the trade-in of equipment at this time, because the entire technology is innovative, not only digital, but also the chips, computing power, etc., at this time, we do the trade-in of equipment, which is a good upgrade for the entire medical system. Rott told the first financial reporter.
Another trend in the development of ultrasound technology is miniaturization, he added. For example, GE Healthcare's Vscan Air, a handheld ultrasound, can be connected to a mobile app to scan body organs as a probe, and images can be seen on the phone, making it easier for doctors to make faster and more convenient diagnoses.
Rott said that the development trend of miniaturization of ultrasound will benefit primary care, especially for early screening of diseases. The CBN reporter learned that GE Healthcare is cooperating with the National Center for Infectious Diseases to promote the whole-process management of hepatitis.
"The field of ultrasound is changing, and in the field of screening, how to make the use of ultrasound more convenient in the future will be a big opportunity. Lott told the first financial reporter, "If some AI and intelligence can be added to ultrasound, there will be more application scenarios, such as the popularization of primary hospitals." ”
Domestic medical equipment manufacturers have also made breakthroughs in ultrasound imaging technology. During this year's CMEF, Kaikai Medical released an ultra-high-end intelligent obstetrics and gynecology ultrasound product equipped with a new generation of intelligent platform, according to reports, the platform can greatly improve the ultrasound front-end signal processing capabilities, bring characteristic technologies around precision and intelligence, and provide multi-department intelligent solutions for clinical practice.
In addition to the field of ultrasound imaging technology, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) has also developed rapidly in recent years as a technology for evaluating endovascular imaging. Kaikai Medical has launched ultra-wideband IVUS imaging equipment and single-crystal composite IVUS catheters in China, which helps to promote the sinking of high-quality medical resources.
In addition, this year's CMEF also exhibited a number of intelligent surgical robots from domestic and foreign manufacturers, using artificial intelligence algorithms, robots can improve the accuracy and integrity of the surgical process, helping doctors complete challenging minimally invasive surgery. With the development of technology in the field of medical imaging, AI-assisted diagnostic systems can now utilize deep learning technology to achieve accurate lesion identification and quantitative analysis.
How do innovative devices empower primary care?
In view of the current problem of "difficulty in entering the clinic" of innovative medical device research and development, the trade-in policy will also help promote the renewal and transformation of medical equipment, maximize domestic demand, and improve the utilization rate of a new generation of medical devices, so as to form a closed loop of medical devices from R&D, production, sales to application.
However, the R&D cost of innovative medical devices and equipment is often high, and the update and iteration of products may still be difficult for some grassroots hospitals. In this regard, Professor Huang Gang, president of the Nuclear Medicine Physician Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association and leader of the nuclear medicine discipline of Renji Hospital, told the first financial reporter: "The demand for equipment in primary medical care focuses on practicality and suitability, and does not necessarily require high-end equipment. ”
Liu Jie, president of Carestream Healthcare, a multinational medical device manufacturer in Greater China, told the first financial reporter that for primary medical care, the current "trade-in" policy is not a competition for high-tech technology, but more importantly, how to help hospitals improve efficiency, which is the trend of medical demand development in the next few years, that is, how to let the people feel the benefits of medical technology.
He believes that for multinational companies like Carestream Health, on the one hand, it is to accelerate the introduction of innovative technologies such as AI, and on the other hand, to accelerate the popularization of medical devices through these technologies. For example, a fixed DR system (digital radiography system) demonstrated by Carestream Health at CMEF is a traditional medical device, but now incorporates artificial intelligence technology to automate tasks for faster and more efficient inspections, while the mobile DR system can bring 100-micron-level high-definition imaging to the patient's bedside, enabling low-dose and accurate positioning of the compartment with longer battery life.
"China has a huge population base, which is a huge market opportunity for Carestream Health, but at the same time, we also see differences in the Midwest and Western regions. He told the first financial reporter, "Now the country has put forward the policy of replacing the old with the new, and the large-scale production of medical equipment and equipment is a good news for the grassroots people, and Carestream is also a firm supporter of this policy, requiring us to develop more efficient, convenient and cost-effective equipment." ”
Huang Yi, Vice President of Siemens Healthineers Greater China and Head of Imaging Diagnostic System, believes that for primary care, digital technology empowerment is a better means.
"If hospitals have innovative medical products but will not use them, it will cause waste, so digital technology is a good means to empower grassroots hospitals, through the development of some 5G remote technology and other relatively low-cost digital tools, it can effectively enable grassroots hospital technicians and doctors to make full use of innovative medical products through digitalization. He told the first financial reporter.
At present, Siemens Healthineers already has a variety of digital technologies that have been put into use, such as the metaverse platform, including remote scanning assistants, remote intervention masters, etc., through which they empower primary care and sink advanced diagnosis and treatment technologies.
Huang Yi said that primary care is a huge market opportunity for enterprises, but to some extent, it is also a requirement for more competitive costs, so as to improve accessibility. "This requires cost optimization by leveraging the advantages of the supply chain. He told the first financial reporter. According to reports, Siemens Healthineers' current supply chain localization rate has exceeded 80%, and it has R&D and production bases in Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places.
Zhang Yihao, Executive Vice President, President and CEO of GE Healthcare, said, "In the face of the unique needs of the Chinese market, we will further work with partners in the innovation chain, industrial chain and ecological chain to break down R&D boundaries, break down innovation barriers, open the door to cooperation, and lead domestic medical devices to move towards a more integrated, intelligent and customized development direction." ”
Professor Zhang Wenhong, Director of the National Medical Center for Infectious Diseases, Director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center for Infection and Immunity, and Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, has been calling for the strengthening of primary care, especially the empowerment of innovative medical technologies at the grassroots level.
Zhang Wenhong told the first financial reporter that strengthening the ability of grassroots hospitals to screen for diseases in the early stage will help move the overall threshold of disease management forward. Citing the cooperation between the National Center for Infectious Diseases and GE Healthcare in the full-cycle management of hepatitis as an example, he said that the reason why liver disease is considered a serious disease is that we have not done enough in early screening of the disease, so patients often need to go to large hospitals for treatment when the disease is discovered.
Zhang Wenhong also said at this year's two sessions that it is necessary to improve the informatization and Internet medical construction of primary medical and health institutions, use the development of information technology, extend telemedicine technology and medical system diagnosis platform to the community, and realize the extension of the accurate diagnosis and treatment capacity of large hospitals through community doctors and rural doctors.
(This article is from Yicai)