Update | Lenovo spin-off joins Chinese hospitals to improve cancer survival rates with help of AI

A Hong Kong-listed spin-off of computer giant Lenovo Group said it has teamed up with some of China’s best cancer treatment organisations to boost the country’s low tumour survival rate by collecting patients’ medical records for big data analysis using artificial intelligence.

Digital China Holdings, commonly known as DC Holdings, is working with the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the National Cancer Centre to develop the largest nationwide oncologic data centre and big data platform to analyse tumour cases from 30 provincial hospitals, 174 city-level hospitals as well as 1,000 specialised tumour clinics across the country.

The patient information is exclusive to the company as it was on a “national mission” to help raise the odds of curing malignant tumours, Guo Wei, chairman of DC Holdings, said in an interview in Guangzhou.

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The central government has made the precision medical field a focus of its 13th five-year plan, and Chinese companies have been embarking on ambitious efforts to collect a vast trove of genetic and health data and number crunching that into consumer technologies aimed at saving lives.

However, this benefit comes at the expense of privacy and raises questions of whether confidential medical records will be shared with other parties such as insurance companies that could then refuse to cover certain patients.

Unlike many developed nations where individual medical records are considered confidential and their disclosure has raised concerns, Beijing is encouraging medical institutions to work with trusted companies to boost big data applications in health care and clinical research.

Due to less effective screening technology and poor levels of early diagnosis, cancer is the No 1 cause of deaths among mainland Chinese residents, regardless of whether they live in cities or rural areas. The deadly disease is also a huge financial burden on Chinese families as only a small proportion of the population can afford insurance policies that cover the huge costs of cancer treatment.