Editor's note:

Smart medicine is the future of medical advancement. Information technology, artificial intelligence and big data are playing increasingly significant roles in health care, which is becoming more convenient and human-centered. This series on many sectors of the health industry is intended to demonstrate the role of advanced technology, intelligent systems and new inventions.

Chinese-developed intelligent medical equipment for radiotherapy has gained international recognition. Foreign hospitals for the first time visited the Shanghai Cancer Center to study a machine wholly developed in China, the center said on Monday.

Representatives from the French OMCC group, which has eight radiotherapy centers, traveled all the way to study the made-in-China equipment.

Previously, China has imported high-end radiotherapy equipment from the West.

The coaxial alignment of the diagnostic CT and linear accelerator with a shared table for precise treatment was developed by local company United Imaging, and a new radiotherapy technique called "All-in-one" was developed alongside through cooperation between the Shanghai Cancer Center and the company.

It supports the entire radiation therapy workflow from CT simulation to CT image guidance and treatment delivery. Doctors do CT scans from time to time during the course of the entire treatment to direct radiation beams and strength in order to achieve a more precise result.

It can achieve personalized precision radiotherapy based on high-quality diagnostic CT with a new radiotherapy clinical workflow. The real-time CT also helps realize online adaptive radiotherapy, which allows for timely adjustment of the treatment plan according to anatomical and functional changes of the patient, medical experts said.

"The equipment represents the highest standard of mechanical design and manufacturing in line with clinical demand," said Dr Hu Weigang from the Shanghai Cancer Center's radiation oncology department. "Our next step is to further reduce the radiation dose of CT from the current one-third of usual intensity to one-tenth or one-twentieth to provide patients with precise image guidance and less harm to nearby healthy tissues.

"The cooperation with the pharmaceutical equipment company greatly pushed clinical development. We doctors gave our demands and engineers helped solve the problems and made it into a practical product to better serve clinical use," Hu said. "The diagnostic CT and linear accelerator was developed based on repeated discussions between doctors and engineers.

"Different from Western hospitals, we have much larger number of patients, so how to improve efficiency is another top concern of ours," he said. "We have collaborated with United Imaging to create a 'All-in-one' solution by employing the world's first machine that combines positioning CT scanning and radiotherapy using AI technology. Patients are no longer required to be in various rooms for different procedures. All radiotherapy preparation and treatment processes take place on a single bed."

The "All-in-one" solution is the first of its kind in the world and more "made-in-China" equipment is under development to build China into a country with leading ability on high-end medical equipment development, experts said.