YINCHUAN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chen, 30, was born with brachydactyly -- a hereditary condition that results in shortened fingers or toes -- and for the majority of his life, he has been testing the limited capabilities of doctors near his home in northwest China. Until recently, the only alternative was seeking expert care in a large far-off city, but that meant tackling a discouraging maze of scarce appointments, costly travel and endless waits.
A turning point for Chen came when orthopedic surgeon Liang Zhijun at the First People's Hospital of Yinchuan in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region suggested a different path. Recognizing the complexity of Chen's condition and the significant challenges of surgery, Liang chose not to refer him elsewhere. Instead, he went online to research options close to home.
Through Yinchuan's national expert remote diagnosis and treatment center, Liang consulted with Fang Yousheng, a leading hand surgeon at Huashan Hospital, which is affiliated with Fudan University in Shanghai. Their virtual assessment produced a joint surgical plan and arrangements for Fang to travel to nearby Yinchuan, where he underwent a successful, life-changing surgery.
Chen's case represents one strand of a broad transformation unfolding across China, where a national effort to integrate digital tools into health care is steadily dismantling long-standing barriers to medical access. Through the "Internet Plus Healthcare" initiative, a new model of care is taking hold -- one that reaches deep into regions like Ningxia and turns once distant, top-tier medical resources into something local and attainable.
Driving this transformation is fast-growing digital infrastructure. The Yinchuan center has facilitated over 3,800 remote expert consultations. Patients in far-flung regions can obtain top-level diagnoses from specialists in Beijing or Shanghai without undertaking punishing journeys or stepping outside their local insurance networks, in a systemwide reallocation of medical expertise beyond telemedicine.
The impact of this transformation is felt most keenly at the grassroots level. The rural town of Zhangyi in Yuanzhou District, which is administered by Guyuan City in Ningxia, once battled the daily frustration of a limited medical capacity. "We lacked specialists. Even when we had X-rays, no one could interpret them, so patients had to be referred to the county seat," said Ye Rui, deputy director of the town's health center. "The delays often made their conditions worse."
The arrival of a CT scanner and the remote diagnosis system changed everything. Now, scans are carried out locally and uploaded with a click, and diagnosticians at the People's Hospital of Yuanzhou District return detailed reports online. Results are accepted across the county, sparing patients from repeat tests at higher-level facilities.
By the end of last year, China's remote medical services network covered all cities and counties, extending its reach to communities and villages. Official statistics show that roughly 70 percent of township-level health centers now work in remote partnership with higher-level hospitals.
Behind this change is a firm policy push from the top to build a "Healthy China." The country's pending 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) calls for the advancement of the digital, intelligent construction of a national health system. As the first region designated as an "Internet Plus Healthcare" pilot area, Ningxia has become a national test bed, with its pioneering practices maturing into a replicable model.
The region has built a robust, five-tier remote services system and established centralized diagnostic hubs spanning specialties from imaging to pathology. A "grassroots examination, higher-level diagnosis and region-wide report recognition" model has been established to promote standardized and homogeneous regional health care services.
A fresh wave of innovation is now cresting in the form of artificial intelligence (AI). At the People's Hospital of Helan County in Yinchuan, the DeepSeek system deployed early this year represents the next phase of digital medicine. The platform combines WiNGPT, a specialized medical AI model developed by the Shanghai-based Winning Health Technology Group, with a general-purpose model to support clinicians across workflows.
"Once we make an initial assessment, DeepSeek takes over, issuing risk warnings, recommending tests, prompting differential diagnoses and drafting treatment plans," said Lan Xiaoyan, a neurological physician at the hospital, adding that the only thing they now need to do is fine-tune the results, which has cut consultation times dramatically.
The push toward a future of AI plus health care is reinforced by a national implementation plan, underscoring China's resolve to embed next-generation technologies into the core of its health system.
The story is no longer simply about linking a patient in Ningxia with a surgeon in Shanghai. Instead, it is about constructing an ecosystem where a clear roadmap, robust policy support and a steadfast pace of innovation intersect to deliver a smarter, accessible and equitable medical future for hundreds of millions.
And for patients like Chen, that future has already arrived. ■
