(Yicai) March 5 -- The chairman of Good Doctor Pharmaceutical Group has put forward a proposal at the opening session of China’s annual National People's Congress to set up a special fund that would subsidize the widespread use of artificial intelligence in primary healthcare centers, which account for over 95 percent of all medical institutions nationwide.

The fund, which would be jointly funded by the central and local governments, would cover 30 percent to 50 percent of the cost for primary healthcare providers buying AI agents used to manage common illnesses and chronic diseases, said Geng Funeng, who is also an NPC delegate. In rural areas, that could be increased to as high as 60 percent, he added.

China’s primary healthcare system includes community health service centers, township health centers, village clinics, and private clinics. These facilities are responsible for diagnosing and treating common illnesses, managing chronic diseases, and delivering essential public health services, while also playing a crucial role in easing patient pressure on large hospitals.

Investment and technological resources in medical AI are mainly concentrated in top-tier hospitals, while grassroots centers often lack the funds needed to deploy such technologies, Geng noted, adding that a dedicated subsidy fund would help address this imbalance and enable wider adoption of AI in primary care.

Geng was not the only NPC delegate to highlight the challenges facing the adoption of AI in primary healthcare. Dai Lizhong, chairman of diagnostic solutions provider Sansure Biotech, proposed gradually expanding the use of AI medical technologies in healthcare institutions through pilot programs.

Dai called for stronger policy support and increased funding for pilot areas and institutions testing AI applications. He also suggested offering subsidies to grassroots medical facilities that adopt AI and including the cost of high-quality AI products within the scope of medical insurance reimbursement.

China should designate representative grassroots medical institutions, leading hospitals, and public health agencies in regions with concentrated healthcare resources and strong internet infrastructure as pilot units, Dai said. These pilot programs could focus on key AI applications including AI-assisted remote diagnosis, infectious disease early warning, triage, and AI-supported drug development.

Dai also stressed the need to establish a fault-tolerance and error-correction system so that pilot policies can be adjusted dynamically as the programs progress.

Healthcare regulators should accelerate the opening of anonymized medical data and promote the creation of a unified platform for sharing such information, Dai said. He added that clearly defining the scope, standards, and procedures for data access would allow AI developers to get big, high-quality datasets, helping them develop AI models well-suited to China’s healthcare system.

The NPC, China’s parliament, is holding its annual meeting from today to March 12, while the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's top political advisory body, will run through March 11. It opened yesterday. Together they are known as the “Two Sessions,” or Lianghui in Chinese.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione