High-Quality Development Research | Why can Shanghai become a center for medical device innovation?
Medical devices are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the current biomedical industry, and they are also a new highlight of Shanghai's manufacturing industry in recent years. Official data shows that from 2019 to 2023, a total of 30 innovative medical devices were approved for sale in Shanghai in the past five years, accounting for about one-fifth of the country's total.
Why can Shanghai become a center for medical device innovation? The reporter interviewed a number of medical device companies in Jiading's "Mechanical Valley" and found that most of them were established or moved to Jiading around 2010. During that period, the construction of the North Branch of Ruijin Hospital started in Jiading, and the Ruijin Hospital Tumor Proton Center project was established one after another. Medical devices are products that rely heavily on application scenarios for iterative development. The rich medical resources are precisely what attracts medical device companies in Shanghai the most.
"Mechanical Valley" is a typical case of the rapid agglomeration and development of Shanghai's medical device industry, in which Ruijin Hospital plays an important role. "We are committed to making doctors the leaders of the innovation chain in the medical field." Ning Guang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, believes that doctors are the most direct users and the most sensitive to application needs. , doctors can use their own experience to help innovative R&D institutions and companies speed up the development and iteration of medical device products.
Ning Guang's words are not empty talk. In 2013, United Imaging Medical’s first commercial CT machine was installed in Ruijin Hospital. Through actual use by doctors, United Imaging has received a lot of effective feedback and suggestions. For example, in the beginning, in terms of software, domestic CT machine images could only adjust brightness and contrast, and the functions were relatively single. After upgrading product equipment several times, the three-dimensional post-processing level of United Imaging CT images has been greatly improved. Images that originally took half an hour to generate, It takes about a minute or two to image. Since then, Ruijin Hospital has successively introduced dozens of MI, MR, CT, and DR equipment from United Imaging Medical, and the two sides have increasingly exchanged and cooperated with each other.
As one of the "first adopters" of domestically produced medical devices, why does Ruijin Hospital dare to "take risks"? Yan Fuhua, director of the Radiology Department of Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, said that the use of domestic medical devices is also driven by actual demand.
“In the early days, the radiation equipment we used were all foreign brands, and the maintenance costs of foreign equipment were very high. Maintenance fees were calculated on an hourly basis, not to mention that the maintenance efficiency was very slow, so we really hope to see some Domestic medical device companies can develop. " Yan Fuhua said that the domestic medical device equipment research and development teams are all local. If doctors find problems during use, they can quickly find someone to solve them, and the hospital also avoids more losses. Both parties work together. Benefit and grow together.
A common goal was found, and a cooperation model between industry, academia, and medicine was quickly reached. In 2021, the Jiaotong University-Ruijin-United Imaging "Medical Imaging Advanced Technology Research Institute" jointly established by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, and United Imaging Medical Technology Group Co., Ltd. was officially established. Both parties are engaged in talent training, Carry out strong cooperation in various fields such as R&D direction, clinical application, innovative industrial transformation, etc., jointly promote the establishment of high-end medical equipment R&D support and transformation platform, cultivate cross-disciplinary talents and young scientists through institutional and mechanism innovation, and accelerate the implementation and transformation of scientific research results.
Now, Yan Fuhua’s team meets with United Imaging’s R&D team every Wednesday at the research institute. It can be seen that although the means of transportation in today's society have been extremely developed, "proximity" in the physical sense can still bring the distance between industry, academia and industry closer.
"Hospital space is always limited, and through the 'Mechanical Valley' model of integrating industry, academia, and research, doctors, technicians, physicists, engineers, and researchers can conduct research and development in the same environment, further expanding medical innovation. space." Ning Guang said that only institutional innovation can bring substantial changes and help to the industry.
During the interview, many business people who have settled in the "Mechanical Valley" said that Jiading District itself has a strong manufacturing foundation. In recent years, the domestic medical device industry has been in a dividend period of digital overtaking, coupled with the addition of "chain owners" such as medical institutions The introduction of "Mechanical Valley" has greatly enhanced its appeal. In 2023, the output of high-end medical devices and precision medicine in Malu Town, Jiading District will increase by 11.5% year-on-year, which is higher than the growth rate of the city's biomedical industry in the same period. Malu Town predicts that the Mechanical Valley Industrial Park will apply for municipal-level characteristic industrial park status by 2025 and achieve an output of 10 billion yuan.
