The potential of China’s vast health care products market is alluring. It has proved off-limits to most of the global medtech industry, and is rarely in the early launch strategies of global companies. Government-led initiatives want that to change, as evidenced in the latest Five-Year Plan and the recent Healthy China 2030 report.

The term artificial intelligence was coined at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project in 1956, but it is only in very recent years that it has been consistently at the top of the agenda in discussions on the future direction of health care. As a tool to improve both the quality and speed of care, AI is now increasingly seen as a realistic solution to the demand overload on clinicians. At the same time, techno-fears are abating. This confluence will transform health care radically in the next two decades.

NHS England’s Long Term Plan puts much emphasis on better use of diagnostic tools in health-care delivery. The UK medtech industry is now pressing for a strategy to ensure that these technologies are factored into all patient pathways. It says the data derived will be used to improve patient outcomes and system efficiency.