(Yicai) March 5 -- The chairman of Chinese pharmaceutical company Good Doctor Pharmaceutical suggested China establish a special subsidy fund to support the widespread use of artificial intelligence in grassroots medical institutions at the ongoing National People's Congress.

The fund, which should be financed proportionally by the central and local governments, will provide purchase subsidies of 30 percent to 50 percent to grassroots medical institutions that procure AI systems for managing common and chronic diseases, said Geng Funeng, who is also an NPC delegate. In rural areas, the subsidy rate could be further increased to up to 60 percent, he added.

The Two Sessions are China's key annual policy meetings. The NPC, the country's parliament, is holding its annual meeting from today to March 12, while the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's top political advisory body, is holding its annual session from yesterday to March 11.

China's grassroots medical institutions include community health service centers, township health centers, village clinics, and private clinics, and they account for over 95 percent of the country's healthcare facilities. They play a critical role in providing diagnosis and treatment for common diseases, managing chronic illnesses, and delivering public health services. They are also key to alleviating the pressure on large hospitals.

Medical AI capital and technological resources are primarily concentrated in top-tier hospitals, while basic medical institutions struggle to apply AI due to limited operating funds, so establishing a special subsidy fund would help change this situation, Geng explained.

Geng was not the only NPC delegate to address the challenges of using AI in basic medical fields. Dai Lizhong, chairman of diagnostic solutions provider Sansure Biotech, suggested gradually promoting the application of AI medical technology in healthcare institutions through pilot programs.

Dai advocated for increased policy support and financial investment in pilot areas and institutions that implement AI. Moreover, he proposed providing subsidies to grassroots medical institutions that adopt AI medical technology and including the cost of high-quality AI medical products in the scope of medical insurance reimbursement.

China should select grassroots medical institutions, top-tier hospitals, and public health organizations in regions with concentrated medical resources and strong internet infrastructure as pilot units, Dai said. The pilot programs would focus on key AI applications, such as AI-assisted remote diagnosis, infectious disease early warning, patient triage, and drug development assistance.

Dai also emphasized the importance of establishing a fault-tolerant and error-correction mechanism to dynamically adjust pilot policies.

Healthcare regulatory agencies should accelerate the opening of de-identified medical data and promote the establishment of a unified platform for de-identified medical data, according to Dai's suggestion. He stressed the need to clarify the scope, standards, and processes for data openness to provide AI developers with high-quality, large-scale training data and facilitate the development of AI models that are well-suited for the Chinese healthcare industry.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione