Chinese medical device maker’s US$2 a day heart attack risk warning system faces resistance in US

[beijingwalker]

Chinese medical device maker’s US$2 a day heart attack risk warning system faces resistance in US

• Beijing-based Lepu Medical claims that the highly accurate system, backed by the world’s largest patient data set, can offer data analytics service at just US$2 per patient over a 24-hour heart monitoring period
• Lepu’s subsidiary Shenzhen Carewell Electronics, which has developed the analytics system, has incorporated some 47 million pieces of data collected from over half a million patients in 2,500 Chinese hospitals

Published: 7:00am, 28 Oct, 2019

Lepu Medical Technology, China’s largest medical device maker, is facing resistance from industry players in the US for an artificial intelligence-powered heart attack risk warning system that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, a company official said.

The Beijing-based company claims the highly accurate system, backed by the world’s largest patient data set, can offer data analytics service at just US$2 per patient over a 24-hour heart monitoring period.

Health care operators either see the efficiency-enhancing analytics system as a threat to their income generation or want to develop their own systems, said David Chung, who heads Maryland-based Carewell Health, a subsidiary of Lepu.

“American doctors don’t want me here because they get paid whenever there are hospital visits,” said Chung. “This technology means many people could avoid surgeries.”

A conservative stance towards new technology by hospital administrators because of high litigation risks in the medical industry also stood in the way.

“In the US, famous doctors’ endorsement is essential for new products to be marketable. You need to get them to test the system and write clinical papers for publication in international medical journals, which could cost a quarter to half a million US dollars each and take a year to 18 months,” said Chung.

Heart diseases cost the US some US$555 billion in 2016, which is forecast to double to US$1.1 trillion by 2035, including health care services, medication and lost productivity, according to American Heart Association.

Some 840,000 deaths – around one every 40 seconds – are recorded annually in the US, where 28 million, or 11 per cent of adult Americans have been diagnosed with heart disease.

This is only a fraction of around 290 million people estimated to have cardiovascular diseases in China, where the state-run medical system is keen to cut treatment costs by deploying new technology.

Three years ago Lepu acquired Shenzhen Carewell Electronics, which has developed the analytics system and incorporated some 47 million pieces of data collected from over half a million patients in 2,500 Chinese hospitals.

It is far higher than those collected by other rival start-ups, such as France-based Cardiologs Technologies and Boston-based Biofourmis, Chung said, adding its collection was made easier by China’s universal public medical system and less stringent patient data privacy regulation.

Lepu claims its system – backed by a huge database – can correctly identify 107 heart symptoms 95 per cent of the time, compared to an accuracy rate of 70 per cent of human doctors who have to read through heart data collected over 24 hours.

It aims to help doctors at large hospitals reduce their time spent on the mundane task and enable smaller clinics or nursing homes without cardiologists make quick and accurate analysis of electrocardiogram – commonly known as ECG, or electrical activity of the heart.

By sending alerts before a heart attack strikes, it aims to have patients treated before they need expensive surgeries and become reliant on drugs for the rest of their lives.

Due to limited resources, Chung said instead of splashing money to get hospital doctors’ endorsement, he is pursuing cooperation with two California-based starts-ups – online medical consultation platform provider VSee and ECG systems supplier QT Medical.

They will bring heart monitoring direct to patients outside hospitals via smartphones and portable ECG devices.

Lepu’s largest shareholder is a research unit of state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. Its net profit grew 37.5 per cent year on year to 1.16 billion yuan (US$164 million) in the year’s first half, as revenue surged 32.7 per cent to 3.92 billion yuan.

https://www.scmp.com/business/compa...vice-makers-us2-day-heart-attack-risk-warning

 

[beijingwalker]

China is the future of health care industry.

 

[Aryan0395]

USA is the height of rotten capitalism. I still remember how the US pharma and med tech companies cried when India launched safer, higher quality and cheaper med devices and heart stents and also capped the prices of all such critical products....

 

[beijingwalker]

the US pharma companies are blood suckers, they only care about maximize their profit, couldn't care less of people's life and death, in China health care is for saving people's lives, in US is for making maximum profits, that's why healthcare is so much more affordable to average citizens in China and everyone is covered by national healthcare program while in US exorbitantly expensive.

 

[atan651]

It's extremely hard to change their mindset but at least the device is FDA-approved and so other countries may be much more willing to adopt this new technology.

 

[serenity]

China's healthcare in many ways is very bad. For poorer people without government jobs or good jobs who cover expenses, they do not receive any care. USA is bad also but in different ways. Both are scary bad for USA it is crony capitalism and for China it is false socialism. But both countries have amazing science and technology available. Although this is for the rich or well connected individuals.

Some of China's healthcare technology and knowledge is leading the world in some small areas and match the best in most areas but often you have to be tier 1 city resident or work for a good company or government connection and money. Unfortunately we cannot care for everyone because some doctors are greedy and many procedures are very expensive. But all are improving gradually. Still have many areas to learn and improve.

 

[beijingwalker]

China Is Striving for the World’s Best, Cheapest Healthcare
Bloomberg
October.21 2019

Less than five years ago, Chinese healthcare was a closed-off, low-quality system where the richest left the country for medicines and treatments, and the poorest took a bad diagnosis as a death sentence. Now, the world’s second largest economy is striving to become a place where patients can get the best, newest drugs and services faster and cheaper than anywhere else.

Pressured by its growing middle class, the Chinese government has set itself an ambitious target: first-world health outcomes at a fraction of the cost that other countries, especially the U.S., pays.

To get there, China has doubled the amount it’s pouring into public hospitals in the last five years to $38 billion. It wants to see a healthcare industry valued at $2.3 trillion by 2030, more than twice its size now.

The cost control part will be much harder. Beijing wants the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world to bend the knee, lowering their prices drastically in order to get access to its vast patient pool. In new drugs, pharmaceuticals from Pfizer to Roche have agreed to cuts of as much as 70%.
It’s an unprecedented balancing act, and the outcome will affect not just billions of Chinese patients, but the future of the global healthcare industry.

China is already catching-up to the U.S. on some important health metrics, and hopes to surpass their doctor patient ratio.


China is pouring billions into public hospitals and has revamped its drug approval system. Some foreign drugs and medical trials are now approved quicker than in the U.S.

It wants the best drugs and care but it does not want to pay a hefty amount that would stress the country’s medical insurance fund.

To pay for these drugs without busting the national budget, it wants global pharmaceutical companies to drop prices drastically in exchange for access to China’s vast patient pool.

This means Chinese patients are starting to pay much less than American patients for the same drugs.

For generic drugs, prices have dropped an average of 52% so far through a government bulk-buying program.

All this activity has lured a groundswell of venture capital funding to China’s burgeoning biotech start-up space, while the biggest global pharmaceutical firms like Roche and Merck see a growing share of revenue coming from the Asian nation.

But re-making the healthcare system for the world’s most populous country won’t come without challenges. The size of the patient population in China—whether in cancer, rare diseases or simply ageing—is bigger than any other country has faced before.

At stake is not just the well-being of millions of Chinese people, but the future of the global healthcare industry. China has set its sights on creating a holy grail healthcare system that satisfies patients’ needs and control costs while still encouraging cutting-edge research—and the world is watching.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-china-healthcare/