AI Healthcare Reaches Rural Areas: 60% of Diagnoses from Small Towns
AI Healthcare Expands Access to Rural Populations
At the 2025 Inclusion Bund Conference, Ant Group's AI health application AQ unveiled significant upgrades aimed at addressing healthcare disparities. The platform now serves 140 million users, with nearly 60% originating from third-tier cities and rural areas - a statistic highlighting AI's role in democratizing medical access.
New Features for Family Health Management
The upgraded "Health Record" system integrates medical histories, medication data, and lifestyle information across 10 major device brands, functioning as a comprehensive digital health vault. Families can track up to 20 members' health metrics, with AI generating personalized recommendations.
Key innovations include:
- AI Smart Skin Detection: Identifies 50+ skin conditions via photo analysis
- Tongue Coating Analysis: Traditional Chinese medicine diagnostics through smartphone cameras
- Fraud Detection Hotline: Partnership with China Mobile to prevent elderly medical scams
Bridging the Urban-Rural Healthcare Divide
Statistics reveal stark disparities: Western China contains less than 5% of national tertiary hospitals, while rural areas have under 20% of practicing physicians. AQ's platform connects:
- 1 million real doctors nationwide
- 200,000 Good Doctor platform physicians
- 300+ specialist AI avatars providing 24/7 consultations
The AI Agent Open Platform enables doctors to create digital assistants, exemplified by Shanghai's "Digital Family Doctor" program serving 400,000 residents. "We're equipping every Chinese family with an always-online health manager," stated Liu Junwei, Ant AI Healthcare GM.
Key Points
- ✔️ 60% of AQ's 140M users come from lower-tier regions
- ✔️ Health Record system supports 20 family member profiles
- ✔️ New fraud prevention measures protect elderly patients
- ✔️ Platform connects rural users to 300+ specialist AI avatars
- ✔️ Urban medical resources exceed rural by 2.5x per capita
