World-class local innovations take center stage at medical fair in Shanghai

World-class local innovations became the highlight of the China International Medical Equipment Fair, renowned as a global indicator in the healthcare industry, which concluded in Shanghai on Sunday.

Both multinational and local companies showcased groundbreaking products in fields such as surgical robots, AI healthcare, and brain-machine interfaces on the platform. Many of these innovations originate from China.

This year's fair was the largest ever, attracting nearly 5,000 brands from around 30 countries and regions.

Siemens Healthineers displayed nearly 50 innovative products, including two scanners of its photon-counting CT family, and a multi-imaging integrated one-stop hybrid operating room.

"Among these innovative products on display, 90 percent originate from local innovation and are made in China. The two new photon-counting CT products are expected to begin local production soon," Jerry Wang, president of Siemens Healthineers Greater China, said.

Earlier this year, the company entered into a collaboration with Shanghai Ruijin Hospital based on its photon-counting CT products. It obtained exclusive rights to a liver fat assessment model developed by the hospital, and will be responsible for subsequent work from development to market implementation. The company said it's committed to bridging the collaborative power of China and the world.

At the Royal Philips booth, an AI-powered CT product capable of covering complex radiotherapy scenarios became a concentrated showcase of the company's local innovation capabilities. This product, Rembra RT, was developed by its innovation center in Shenyang, Liaoning province, manufactured at its production base in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and will be supplied to the global market.

The company also globally debuted the world's first metabolic CT, bringing medical imaging from traditional structural diagnosis into a new dimension of metabolic characterization, which will support early cancer screening and precise identification of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The product will be manufactured in China as well.

Domestic medical imaging innovation enterprise Nanovision Technology Group showcased its latest advancements in phased array CT, a new species of CT technology. The world's first CT scanner using this technology was approved in China in December and is ready for large-scale applications.

Based on electronic pulse exposure, this new technology replaces the traditional mechanical rotation model of CT scanners by using over 20 fixed X-ray sources and one entire ring of detectors. This results in a qualitative leap in both spatial resolution and temporal resolution, providing a magnifying glass-like perspective for early and precise diagnosis.

"It's truly an original new technology that emerged from uncharted territory, and the product's approval last year represents a decade of effort," Yuan Li, chief operations officer of Nanovision, said, adding that the product is expected to obtain approval in Europe within this year, and the company is also preparing for its registration in the United States.

Among the products launched by NovaSerenia, a domestic enterprise specializing in intelligent rehabilitation and elderly care, was an all-carbon fiber electric wheelchair weighing just 9.2 kg, setting a new world record.

This electric wheelchair will be initially targeted at overseas markets while also being sold domestically, according to the enterprise, whose over 70 percent of sales of electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters come from overseas markets, primarily in developed countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Roughly 500 exhibitors displayed technologies related to intelligent rehabilitation robots, smart elderly care, and sleep health at the event. Official statistics showed that by 2035, the scale of China's silver economy is expected to exceed 30 trillion yuan ($4.39 trillion).