According to the Star Daily on December 25 (Reporter Chen Junqing), as a key focus direction of the national strategic emerging industry, the big health industry is developing vigorously with huge market potential, but also faces significant challenges such as difficulty in transforming achievements and a shortage of talent. How to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the big health industry is a topic worth discussing.

Recently, a forum on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the big health industry was held at the Shanghai Medical Valley Industrial Park, hosted by the Antai College of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Zhongyin Technology Finance Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Guests from medical institutions, investment institutions, and Universities discussed the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the big health industry.

As the Star Daily reporter walked into the Shanghai Medical Valley Industrial Park, they were surrounded by a strong atmosphere of medical research. Since opening in October last year, more than 30 companies have settled in, creating 9 major research laboratory institutes. To date, high-end medical instrument companies and talent have rapidly gathered here.

The world's first commercialized single-port surgical robot with a snake-like arm.

Shurui Medical Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shurui), established relying on Shanghai Jiao Tong University's policy of "independent transformation of scientific and technological achievements," is one of the first medical instrument companies to settle in the Shanghai Medical Valley.

Its independently developed single-port endoscopic surgical robot with a snake-like arm became the first single-port surgical robot in China to pass the special review procedure for Innovative Medical Management in 2020, and received listing approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in June 2023. The core key technology adopted by this robot was developed by Xu Kai's team, a professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Biomedical Manufacturing Technology Center at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Translational Medicine Research Institute, over more than 20 years.

The single-port robot has reportedly become the only commercially approved single-port endoscopic surgical robot globally other than the Da Vinci SP, and is the first and currently only approved listing single-port surgical robot in the domestic single-port endoscopy field, effectively filling a domestic gap.

Zhao Lei, General Manager of Shurui, stated at the forum that surgical robots, as a platform technology, require collaboration from multiple disciplines and support from new consumables and surgical instruments to create a complete ecosystem. To achieve the clinical application of surgical robots, it is even more necessary for doctors to participate in technology innovation and technology transfer.

Li Xiaowei, Associate Professor at the School of Biomedical Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and founder of Yifu Technology, introduced the project "Application of Transparent 3D Pathology in Tumor Precision Medicine." This technology achieves detailed analysis of cellular-scale structures through three-dimensional imaging, providing new possibilities for early detection and treatment.

Zhang Xia, Director of Neusoft Smart Healthcare Research Institute, analyzed the strategic layout of Neusoft in the big health industry at the forum. The cloud-native technology-based medical imaging collaborative labeling platform demonstrated supports automatic segmentation algorithms for more than 130 anatomical structures and lesions, providing various labeling methods including automatic, semi-automatic, and manual, as well as morphological measurement functions, ensuring that medical data is managed within a closed loop in the hospital to avoid data leakage.

She stated that the platform lowers the technical threshold for model building, allowing personnel with a medical background to complete data exploration and AI algorithm development through simple operations, which plays a certain role in advancing medical AI research into a code-free era. The advancement of AI technology has brought significant changes to the medical field, especially in enhancing patient experience, disease management, and medical insurance supervision.

How to promote the transformation of achievements in the big health field.

During the roundtable forum, investors, business managers, and academic entrepreneurs in the big health industry analyzed the challenges and opportunities faced in the process of transforming scientific and technological achievements in the big health field from diverse perspectives.

Wu Jie, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Ke Chuang Investment from the capital sector, believes that the transformation of achievements in the big health field faces the following dilemmas: on one hand, the core reason for the lack of transformation of scientific and technological achievements is that the vast majority of enterprises lack the capability to layout early science and technology innovation projects. On the other hand, there is a shortage of talent. "The big health field lacks composite talents who understand both industry and research," he said.

Xu Feng, Director of the Discipline Planning Department of the Ninth People's Hospital, added, "Clinical doctors still have relatively little time to invest in the transformation of achievements. From the perspective of enterprise operation, doctors lack corresponding project operation knowledge. More professional talent in technology transfer should be cultivated to fill the gaps, allowing doctors' clinical research results to be implemented, achieving a win-win situation for all parties."

Additionally, there is currently no established mature path for small and medium-sized enterprises in the domestic market to form large-scale enterprises through mergers and acquisitions. Wu Jie stated, "Currently, nearly 40% of enterprises in the A-share market are in a state of loss, lacking the ability for mergers and integration. Moreover, capital that understands the industry is also quite scarce."

Regarding the issue of improving the conversion rate of achievements, Wu Jie first mentioned the concept of "large enterprise migration." "For businesses, the success rate of first-time entrepreneurship is much lower than that of repeat entrepreneurship. The benefit of large enterprises initiating new projects is that they can determine which projects are seedlings rather than weeds."

The second is capital assistance, where he called for promoting more patient capital to emerge in the market. "From the perspective of Shanghai Star, it is more about guiding the market from the government perspective and cannot achieve full coverage of industries, which requires more patient capital to participate in early investment projects."

The third is talent-driven, where he stated that cultivating composite talents in the health sector requires long-term efforts from both educational institutions and industry. The fourth is demand-driven integration. "Consumption should be vigorously stimulated, as it is directly linked to demand as an important driving force. The final conversion of achievements must be realized at the consumer level to form a virtuous cycle."

Zhao Lei, the general manager of Shuri, believes that promoting the conversion of scientific and technological achievements cannot be separated from the intersection of multiple disciplines. It requires scientists, technicians, and clinicians to communicate and generate sparks through interaction. Additionally, the cross-integration of enterprises and laboratories can clarify the demand for scientific and technological achievements and improve the conversion rate of research results.

During the event, the founding ceremony of the Big Health Society (preparatory) of the School of Finance and Technology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University was also held. It is understood that the Big Health Society is led by the college's industry-education integration development center, officially starting its preparatory work, aiming to construct an ecological organization that integrates alumni and current students based on industry demand. By holding various sharing and exploration activities in the big health industry, the society will strengthen interaction and communication within the industry, deepen students' reflections on practice, and strive to promote the conversion of scientific and technological achievements in the field of big health, injecting new vitality and wisdom into the industry's development.