New rules will keep patients' info secret

As more hospitals mine big data to improve services and tackle illnesses, the central government has vowed to safeguard patients' personal information with a new regulation on how this data can be collected, stored and used.

Data used for analysis by the healthcare industry include people's basic medical condition, general physical condition, disease control and prevention, food safety issues, lifestyle and even genome.

However, "this big data concerns public health and national biological security", according to Jin Xiaotao, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission. "Regulation is necessary," he said, "especially given that China seeks to develop healthcare data as an asset."