GE Healthcare signed an MOU of strategic partnership in Shanghai on Saturday to invite five Chinese firms to join the company’s intelligent healthcare platform Edison.
Under the deal, General Electric will cooperate with software vendors to develop the platform’s applications in China.
The move marks that GE Healthcare officially opens its Edison ecosystem in China after launching the platform in November 2018.
GE Healthcare’s Chief Digital Officer Amit Phadnis said China’s burgeoning digital healthcare industry requires localized healthcare products and systems to better serve the market.
Cathy Fang Cong, vice-president of YITU Technology, one of the five partners, said that one company might find it hard to handle the massive data generated during the healthcare process. The integration will innovate applications to better serve people’s medical needs.
Dai Ying, chief innovation officer of GE Healthcare in China, said the potential of the Chinese market is large, and GE Healthcare will cooperate with more local firms to provide healthier and more efficient digital healthcare services.
The investment of China’s digital healthcare industry is expected to reach 88 billion yuan (about 12.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, according to the Smart Health Department in China Academy of Information and Communication Technology.