Medical informatics for China

Leaders from 20 of China’s most distinguished hospitals received a bespoke masterclass in medical informatics at the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute.

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Welcoming the delegation and setting out Edinburgh’s strengths as an international higher education and research powerhouse, Professor Jonathan Seckl, Vice Principal Resources and Research Policy, underscored the university’s strong, strategic engagement with China that produced a 72% increase in Chinese student enrollment between 2010-2015.

Professor Andrew Morris, Vice Principal Data Science and Director of the Usher Institute, delivered the three hour masterclass titled, Healthcare, Managing Patient Care, Collaboration – Why Scotland is the one to watch.

“Healthcare is becoming increasingly data intensive,” explained Professor Morris. “The integration of patient data with other diverse and varied data sets is essential for the future of medicine.” These data sets include laboratory data, imaging, GP records, genomics and personal health data.

Professor Morris discussed how Scotland is at the vanguard in using data securely and responsibly to advance patient care, improve health service delivery and public health, influence policymakers and develop new drugs.

Data science is so important that Edinburgh’s medical students are all introduced to informatics during their six year programme. “We believe that every medical student should be a data researcher,” said Professor Morris.

The visit to Edinburgh was timely, coming soon after the publication of the State Council of China’s guidelines on developing healthcare big data. The policy paper included a roadmap for China to build the largest unified and interconnected health data pool covering 1.4 billion people by 2020.

The policy includes establishing 100 regional centres of big data excellence, rolling out standardized electronic health records and digital health cards to urban and rural residents, and the creation of a ‘healthcare Open University' to deliver online lifelong learning for healthcare professionals. The data gathered will be used to support research and development in multiple fields, including artificial intelligence (AI) technology related to healthcare, 3D printing technology, medical robotics, wearables and mini-sensors.

After the masterclass, delegates met with a select mix of Scottish medical technology companies and also learned more about The University of Edinburgh’s modular online courses and other capacity building solutions related to data science.