From July 5th to July 7th, the 2024 China Health Information Technology/Healthcare Big Data Application Exchange Conference and Software & Hardware Exhibition (2024 CHITEC) was grandly held in Chongqing. Themed "Unearthing the Value of Data Elements to Drive Digital Health Development," the conference attracted leaders and experts from the national health and wellness sector, showcasing the outstanding strength and level of China's health and wellness information field comprehensively. At the conference, Huawei-DHC Intelligent Multimodal Big Data Center System Solution was officially released, with DHC's sub-forum topics on "Infectious Disease Monitoring, Early Warning, and Emergency Management - AI Service Capability Building" and "Construction of a Multimodal Data Platform for Large Teaching Hospitals" attracting significant attention.

Huawei-DHC Intelligent Multimodal Big Data Center System Solution Release

Caption: Huawei and Shenzhou Medical held a ceremony for the release of the Intelligent Multimodal Big Data Center System Solution, attended by leaders from both parties. Attending the event were Dong Weisi (fourth from left), Vice President of Huawei China Government and Enterprise Solutions; Gong Mengchun (fourth from right), Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Shenzhou Medical; Zhang Lihua (third from left), General Manager of Partnership at Huawei China Government and Enterprise Education and Healthcare Systems; Xu Juan (third from right), Vice President and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute at Shenzhou Medical; Wang Fajun (second from left), Deputy General Manager of the Healthcare Industry at Huawei China Government and Enterprise Education and Healthcare Systems; Zhang Miaozhi (second from right), Director of Data Research at the Shenzhou Medical Artificial Intelligence Research Institute; Lu Mulin (first from left), Solution Director of the Healthcare Industry at Huawei China Government and Enterprise Education and Healthcare Systems; Liu Chao (first from right), Senior Researcher at the Shenzhou Medical Science Research Institute.

During the 2024 CHITEC, Huawei held a technology summit on July 5th themed "Independent Innovation, Smart Fusion - Supporting the Construction of Healthy City Systems, Accelerating High-Quality Public Health Development." Witnessed by leaders and experts from the National Health Commission, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, among other institutions, leading medical big data and AI enterprise DHC, together with Huawei, a global leader in ICT infrastructure and smart terminals, jointly released the intelligent multimodal big data center system solution. This release marks a further deepening of cooperation since the comprehensive cooperation agreement signed at the CHIMA meeting in May this year, showcasing both parties' strong R&D capabilities in the medical science and technology field and their profound insights into future medical development. It also deepens their collaboration in the digitalization of healthcare.

The Huawei-DHC Intelligent Multimodal Big Data Center System Solution utilizes big data, large model AI technology, and multimodal fusion technology to integrate different modal data such as structural data, medical texts, electrophysiological signals, medical imaging, digital pathology, genomics, etc. With full-chain, one-stop intelligent data processing and specialized solutions along with clinical decision-making capabilities, it provides precise decision support in diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, revitalizes hospital data assets, and enhances hospital specialty capabilities.

Dr. Xu Juan stated during the conference that in the medical vertical domain, the essence of large models lies not in "largeness" but in "specialization and precision." High-quality real-world multimodal big data and high-performance computing power are the core elements of building domain-specific large models. DHC's large models possess strong data production capabilities, rapid knowledge iteration capabilities, information mining abilities, reasoning generation abilities, and multimodal data analysis capabilities, driving high-quality development in digital construction of medical specialties and achieving individualized precision diagnosis and treatment for patients. Based on DHC's robust technical advantages and extensive practical experience in medical big data and AI technology, combined with Huawei's international top-tier ICT technology strengths in high-performance computing and storage, the Huawei-DHC Intelligent Multimodal Big Data Center System Solution boasts three major advantages: multimodality, intelligence, and specialization.

Multimodality

The solution is based on DHC's large model foundational models of text, imaging, pathology, and precision across four modalities, integrating structured data, medical texts, electrophysiological signals, medical imaging, digital pathology, genomics, and other multimodal, full-dimensional data, achieving full-chain, one-stop data processing capabilities.

Intelligence

Utilizing advanced technologies such as machine learning, deep learning, large models, image processing, and natural language processing (NLP), generative AI, etc., combined with authoritative evidence-based medicine knowledge bases, the solution provides clinical doctors with intelligent assistant services in patient management, report generation, case writing, etc., offering strong intelligent support; on the other hand, it offers scientific research support in research modeling, literature summarization, highlight extraction, clinical validation, achieving an all-around upgrade in intelligent scientific research.

Specialization

Based on DHC's multimodal clinical decision support technology, self-developed medical vertical domain large models, and authoritative medical knowledge bases, combined with Huawei's fundamental innovative products, the solution establishes department-level specialty disease databases, providing doctors with intelligent decision support services through multimodal data fusion algorithms. It offers services like professional intelligent Q&A, literature summaries, discharge summaries, etc., empowering departments comprehensively with intelligent technology. This enhances doctor efficiency, improves diagnostic accuracy, boosts service quality, reduces medical costs, increases patient satisfaction, and overall elevates departmental medical service levels.

Up to now, the solution has covered 20 specialties including oncology, nephrology, respiratory medicine, orthopedics, gynecology and pediatrics, among 73 specific diseases, with continuous expansion and updates. This not only reflects the dynamic development capability of the solution but also fully demonstrates its application value in the medical field.

The joint release of the specialty multimodal large model solution by DHC and Huawei is a result of deep cooperation in the medical science and technology field and a significant milestone in the digital transformation of the medical industry. As cooperation deepens, both parties will work together to promote the linkage of industry, academia, research, and application in the medical field, establish a collaborative development ecosystem, create more medical scenario-based solutions, and build innovative application services that meet the digital needs of medical institutions at different development stages.

Sub-Forum Speeches and Solutions Attract Attention

Dr. Gong Mengchun, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of DHC, was invited to speak at the "Clinical Research Platform Based on Data" sub-forum, delivering an insightful talk on "Construction of a Full-Hospital Multimodal Data Platform in Large Teaching Hospitals." Amidst profound changes in the medical field driven by large models, the demand for multimodal data governance and standardization in medical research is increasing, especially the potential value of Chinese electronic medical record data, where DHC holds strong capabilities and rich experience. Dr. Gong emphasized the imperative of constructing a multimodal data system in teaching hospitals, highlighting DHC's significant technological lead in this area.

DHC, in collaboration with Southern Medical University's Nanfang Hospital, established the first full-hospital multimodal data platform in China, recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as the only multimodal data diagnostic and research integrated application demonstration base in South China. Additionally, DHC has partnered with Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University, and Ganzhou People's Hospital to jointly apply for the National Development and Reform Commission's multimodal clinical decision support system development and promotion project. The results are expected to be implemented in 100 large tertiary hospitals and reach 1000 primary care hospitals, significantly enhancing the quality and efficiency of medical services.

DHC has also achieved remarkable success in international clinical research. Based on the OMOP common data model and SNOMED CT/LOINC international terminologies, the company has constructed several international research platforms with world-class capabilities. These platforms not only facilitate international academic exchanges but have also published numerous significant research results in top international journals such as BMJ, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, Lancet RHWP, JMIR, etc. Among these achievements, some have won the Best Paper Award from the International Medical Informatics Association and the Innovation Award from the World Health Organization, marking China's lead in the application of multimodal clinical data internationally.

Liu Qin, Director of the Big Data Solution Center at DHC, spoke on the topic of "Infectious Disease Monitoring, Early Warning, and Emergency Management - AI Service Capability Building" at the "Public Health Informationization - Construction and Application" sub-forum. Before the national emergency control policy documents were issued, only half of the provinces had established or were in the process of establishing emergency systems, but there often existed issues with missing data. The incompleteness, inaccuracy, and timeliness of data, especially during outbreaks, were prominent due to the lack of comprehensive high-quality data support, making it difficult to make accurate decisions.

In response to this situation, the national government proposed six key construction points: establishing a unified provincial platform, unifying data collection, breaking information barriers, focusing on key monitoring and hospital data reporting, constructing a multichannel monitoring network, and sharing data. In response to the national call, DHC provided data collection tools, submitted standardized data to the national level through pre-software, and according to provincial requirements, transmitted data to the provincial platform via the epidemic network. The company established a provincial multimodal platform and an application support platform composed of a data center and an artificial intelligence center, achieving data collection, monitoring, dispatching, governance, and standardization, thus forming usable data scenarios. This supports horizontal sharing at the government management level and upper-layer applications of the database. These technologies and solutions have been applied in cases such as the domestic COVID-19 prevention and control platform, demonstrating DHC's significant capabilities in public health informatization construction.

Caption: The Huawei-DHC Intelligent Multimodal Big Data Center System Solution and DHC's large models have attracted widespread attention from experts in attendance.