Digital and Intelligent Health Forum | Wu Degang: Shaanxi's digital health practices empower grassroots healthcare services

Wu Degang, director of Shaanxi Provincial Health Information Center, delivers a speech at the Digital and Intelligent Health Forum during the 2026 World Internet Conference Digital Silk Road Development Forum on July 22. [Photo/wicinternet.org]

Primary healthcare institutions are the first line of defense in safeguarding public health, said Wu Degang, director of Shaanxi Provincial Health Information Center, at the Digital and Intelligent Health Forum, part of the 2026 World Internet Conference Digital Silk Road Development Forum, on July 22.

Wu shared the achievements of the "Sanqin Intelligent Medical Assistant" grassroots capability enhancement project, outlining the use of AI to empower grassroots healthcare services.

Shaanxi has established a digital framework. Following four years of pilot testing, the framework has been implemented across 10 cities within the province.

In clinical scenarios, the project employs multimodal AI technology through consultation, diagnosis, and prescription workflows, addressing grassroots diagnostic shortcomings.

The system has achieved an overall diagnostic accuracy rate exceeding 95 percent and a first-diagnosis accuracy rate for common grassroots ailments of 92 percent, while intercepting inappropriate prescriptions with 98 percent accuracy. 

By incorporating domestic medical AI models, it has also developed a mobile knowledge base for grassroots doctors. Beyond diagnostics, Wu highlighted the project's establishment of an “AI follow-up” system.

The project has been applied in 102 counties, covering approximately 34.79 million people.