The Chinese AI-driven medical platform aims to equip doctors with digital tools.
The doctor is using digital way to do her work. Image credit: National Cancer Institute/Unsplash
Chinese medical AI startup Shukun announced that it had closed Series B funding at a deal value of CNY 200 million. This investment was co-led by BOC International and CCB International’s Jianxing Fund, participation came from sequential investors China Creation Ventures (CCV) and Huaigai Capital (HG Capital). Shukun plans to utilize this capital injection to accelerate landing AI technologies in all-tier clinics and community care centers while continuously advancing in the heart disease, neural systems and oncology areas.
As a medical solution provider, Shukun provides hospitals with a smart end-to-end workflow, called ‘Scan-to-Report’ – an efficient procedure that allows booking, examination and receipt of reports within the same day. So far, this AI startup has built three comprehensive platforms covering three major human organ areas: heart, brain and chest. Even further, Shukun also launched a community-based medical imaging cloud platform, which significantly benefits citizens by making it more convenient for them to do the physical examination and follow-up checks.
Within the three years since its inception, this high-tech medical company has accumulated nearly 100 patents and has been recognized as an ‘Innovative Medical Device’ by the Chinese Food and Drug Administration. Now it eyes an accelerated expansion into more triple-A hospitals nationwide, as it simultaneously seeks commercialization in joint efforts with giants in the field of medical devices, such as GE Healthcare and Philips Healthcare.
From a long-term perspective, the in-depth integration of AI technology and medical application is just a start. In the Governmental Two Sessions, not long ago, one representative from a radiology department introduced that it takes from at least 30 minutes to one hour to do the traditional check and diagnosis, including the stages: ‘scan – post-treatment – diagnosis – initial reporting – report review.’ For patients, they should usually wait for one to three days to receive the reports. This is the area where AI technology should enter.
“The lack of medical resources has always been one of the rooted reasons of China’s medical issues,” says Mr. Zhou Wei, the managing partner of China Creation Venture, “the most efficient way is to utilize AI such advanced technologies to assist doctors in solving the imbalance between demand and supply.”
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, this startup has extended its service coverage to over 200 hospitals nationwide. It is not the only AI-based medical tech that has embraced a boosting strategy at this particular time. Invervision, the lung cancer detector, launched a deep-learning system in the epicenter of Wuhan to help frontline doctors fight against the deadly virus.
In the coming second wave of the epidemic, high-tech tools are a must to shape a possible solution for all mankind.