National People's Congress Deputy and China National Pharmaceutical Group Part-time Director Yu Qingming: Promoting the Deep Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Medical Devices

Report Team of the Two Sessions, Zhang Xiaoyu

On the afternoon of March 3rd, Quingming Yu, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and part-time director of China National Pharmaceutical Group, told reporters: “Currently, China has entered a moderately aging society. By the end of 2025, the population aged 60 and above will reach 323 million, accounting for 23% of the total population. Addressing population aging has become an important starting point for formulating economic and social development policies.”

Currently, the supply of smart devices precisely tailored to the healthcare needs of the elderly is still insufficient, with a gap between product adaptability and actual demand. Therefore, Yu Qingming stated that efforts should be made from the supply side to optimize the product structure.

In promoting the deep integration of artificial intelligence and medical devices, Yu Qingming believes that support should be given to enterprises developing intelligent devices with functions such as heart rate, respiration, eye movement monitoring, abnormal alarm, and two-way communication to enable timely intervention for health risks of home-dwelling seniors, strengthening the safety net for elderly care.

Regarding the development of multifunctional intelligent service robots, Yu Qingming said that focus should be on developing products with functions such as companionship at home, health consultation, and fitness guidance, upgrading devices from “functional tools” to warm-hearted health partners.

In creating new scenarios for health consumption among the elderly, Yu Qingming suggested strengthening multi-department policy coordination, including some suitable medical and health devices into the medical insurance catalog, and promoting the application of intelligent nursing and wearable rehabilitation robots in pilot cities for home-based elderly care, helping to realize smart elderly care and reduce social and family burdens.

In actively promoting the application of innovative pharmaceutical and medical device products, as health consumption demands continue to grow and review and approval systems for drugs and medical devices are accelerated, many domestically innovative drugs and medical devices are speeding to market, greatly ensuring the safety, effectiveness, and accessibility of medications, including testing equipment, preventive drugs, and rehabilitation aids, which play a positive role in disease prevention and chronic disease management. Yu Qingming said that efforts should be made to further promote the use of domestically innovative drugs and medical devices to ease medical burdens and reduce medical insurance costs.

Additionally, with online drug purchasing becoming an important channel, new challenges have emerged for regulation. Currently, the state has issued documents such as the “Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Drug Sales,” established monitoring platforms, and achieved positive results. However, since e-commerce platform regulation involves multiple departments, strengthening coordinated supervision is imperative.

To further ensure medication safety, Yu Qingming stated that the online drug sales supervision mechanism should be strengthened, and management measures for online prescription drug sales should be introduced. Regulations should be detailed, the main responsibilities of e-commerce platforms should be further clarified, and a joint responsibility mechanism between platforms and merchants should be established; cross-departmental supervision and information sharing should be enhanced; smart supervision should be strengthened, illegal activities should be severely cracked down, and a solid drug safety line should be built.

(Edited by: Wen Jing)

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