Monthly Report October/November 2015 No. 5 SUNPA is the largest developer and manufacturer of telemedicine products and telemedicine services provider in China. It main products include digital medical devices, medical information system and related hardware and software. Yunnan SUNPA group is located in Kunming High & New Technological Zone, which is one of the most innovative enterprise supported and promoted by local government. Besides SUNPA, in this warm winter here in Kunming, we welcomed Swedish visitors, who visited our office, and conducted field study tour in local plantations. Yunnan is the world of flowers which has big demands for products such as peat soils and related package items. Overview of SUNPA Established in 1998, Sunpa has developed into an international group with a total asset of USD 650 million and built a more than 900-person specialized management team. SUNPA is a main developer and manufacturer which specializes in telemedicine systems, digital medical devices, medical information system and related hardware and software, as well as a main telemedicine service provider. It has developed and launched more than 80 kinds of hardware such as proprietary telemedicine systems, telemedicine peripherals, related digital devices and medical tele-education equipment. SUNPA has developed and incorporated more than hundreds self-owned software products such as, Hospital Information Systems (HIS), Electronic Medical Record, Lab Information Systems (LIS), Radiology Information System (RIS), Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), and Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) etc. It has successfully undertaken several telemedicine projects in China, South Arica and India. Combined with telemedicine systems and equipment, SUNPA is able to provide total solution of integrated medical information system to hospitals at all levels in China. 1
SUNPA has set up one of the biggest telemedicine networks in the world centered around Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Kunming, covering more than 2000 hospitals at different levels throughout China and gathered more than 6,800 well known medical experts and about 76,800 outstanding doctors, and aim to provide the quality medical services to 520 million population. Based on the statistics, in Yunnan, SUNPA has handled more than 1.42 million telemedicine cases annually which saved more than USD 528 million for government and patients. SUNPA has also conducted a great number of tele-cme services with more than 3.6million medical staff participants, which has saved the cost at the value of USD 510 million for both government and medical institutes. SUNPA Group has mastered such innovative technologies as an integrated software technology for hospital information network, high-resolution motion picture acquisition, DSP-chip-based optimisation algorithm for transmission of compressed images, the image transmission and display with medical diagnostic quality under relatively low bandwidth conditions, complete collection of medical information, high capacity storage and management of medical images, research and development of ancillary equipment 2
for professional telemedicine, and encryption of patient information. Based on full research and investigation, as well as applications at different levels, with its comprehensive telemedicine equipment and product system, SUNPA has completed the configuration and integration of the telemedicine systems that can be applied to hospitals at 6 hierarchy levels in China, from national level, provincial level, prefecture level, county level, township level hospitals, all the way down to village-level clinics. Hence the collection, compression, storage, transmission, restore and display of complete medical information with the quality that meets the requirements for medical diagnosis from all medical subjects can be realised. Medical experts are able to examine and make diagnosis through the system just like what they are able to do on site at a hospital. The telemedicine systems and products not only help realise in the real sense the remote visualisation of medical diagnosis and treatment, but also lay the technical and equipment foundations for the top-down construction and operation of a nation-wide 6- level telemedicine system. SUNPA was the very first to propose the concept of telemedicine professional accessory devices. By integrating telemedicine with such medical information systems as PACS and EMR, SUNPA has made the concept of telemedicine more complete. At the same time, SUNPA has established a set of standards for telemedicine equipment and services to ensure that all the medical information fully comply with the quality requirements for medical diagnosis. The 6-level telemedicine system developed by SUNPA is able to provide total solutions that meet the needs of developing telemedicine systems at medical institutions of different levels and scales. SUNPA has contributed products, services and cash at a value of 15 million USD annually in the means of donation, free aid and charge relief. 3
Major Business SUNPA Telemedicine Services Different telemedicine services fit the need of foreign nationality, overseas Chinese and friends all over the world, including: Tele-digestive Medical Service/ Tele-pneumology Medical Service Tele-endocrinology Medical Service/ Tele-hematology Medical Service Tele-neurology Medical Service/ Tele-urology Medical Service Tele-cardiology Medical Service/ Tele-cardiovascular Internal Medicine Service Tele-OPD of Chinese Medicine Service/ Tele-orthopedics Medical Service Tele-neurosurgery Medical Service/Tele-urological Medical Service Tele-chest Surgery Medical Service/Tele-cardiac Surgery Service Tele-hepatobiliary Surgery Medical Service/Tele-general Surgery Service Tele-dermatology Medical Service/Tele-radiology image reading Service Tele-ultra sound diagnosis Service/Tele-pathological imagereading Service 4
Tele-outpatient & Emergency Treatment Category/Tele-outpatient service Tele-expert consultation/tele-emergency treatment Tele-experts ward inspection/tele-static Medical Image Diagnosis Category Tele-cardiogram diagnosis/ Tele-pathological image reading Tele medical image reading /Tele-motion Medical Image Diagnosis Category Tele-cardiogram /Tele-pathology /Tele-ultra sound diagnosis Tele-ophthalmology slit lamp microscope/ Tele-ophthalmofundoscope diagnosis Tele-medical image / Tele-endoscope diagnosis Tele-treatment Category/ Tele-treatment supervision/ Tele-intensive care Tele-operation Supervision Category/ Tele-operation supervision Tele-consultation Category/ Tele-consultation/ Tele-expert consultation Product and Platform 5
SUNPA Software Tele-pathology database Telemedicine Static and Dynamic Image Examination System Tele-surgury Guidance System and Tele-e Telemedicine Static and Dynamic Image ducation System Examination System Telemedicine Microscope Image Examination System Medicenter D6930 Multi-function Examination Terminal Medical Image-re Medicenter Tele-ECG Monitoring ading System Products Management System 6
Two Successful Cases Province-wide Connectivity Project SUNPA has established a province-wide telemedicine project that covers 213 hospitals in 129 counties in Yunnan Province. So far the network has handled more than 900,000 telemedicine cases and provided telemedicine training to more than 10 million people for the health systems at different levels. SUNPA has become the institution that has provided the most telemedicine services globally. SUNPA Telemedicine Cooperation with South Africa Before 2002, most of the telemedicine systems in South Africa used equipment made in the US, the UK, Japan and South Korea. However, the equipment was too expensive to be promoted. Dr. Sam Gulube, then the Director of Telemedicine Research of South Africa Medical Research Council, was very keen to introduce the technologies and products of SUNPA to South Africa after he saw SUNPA equipment at the annual conference of the American Telemedicine Association in 2002. The products from Yunnan SUNPA are not only equipped with internationally leading technologies, but also priced at only one third of the price of the similar products at the global market. Therefore, they are quite competitive for promotion in African countries. With the support of the ministries of science and technology in both countries, Yunnan SUNPA Group and South Africa Medical Research Council started cooperation in telemedicine technologies and research. It was not only included in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of projects by Sino-South Africa Joint Commission on Science and Technology Cooperation, but more importantly the products from the project was able to industrialise through the cooperation. These products have been employed in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo Provinces in South Africa. Telemedicine systems have covered all the towns in these two provinces in South Africa and in Zambia. Such pilot and demonstration projects have laid a solid foundation for the extensive promotion and application of SUNPA telemedicine equipment in the 53 African countries. It will not only help raise the medical and health care levels in the African countries, but also contribute to strengthen the cooperation between China and Africa. 7
Photo News Signing ceremony between SUNPA and the Yunnan Branch of China Development Bank to joint establish centres that are based in Yunnan and reach out to South and Southeast Asia. May 20, 2015, head of the Clare County of Ireland visited SUNPA. The staff of SUNPA telemedicine centre were introducing and demonstrating the use of SUNPA telemedicine equipment. SUNPA Group attended on invitation the 20 th Annual International Meeting of the American Telemedicine Association held in Los Angeles on May 2, 2015. Dr. Liu Yong, Chairman and President of SUNPA Group gave a presentation at the meeting to introduce SUNPA s history in China, its technical routes and service modals. 8
Telemedicine - the necessity and the inevitability of health care centres In the thirteenth Five--Year Plan, four key projects have been identified in the medical and health care sector in order to strengthen the development of primary medical and health care service systems centred around township health centres. However, in reality, township health centres are usually poor-staffed and poor-equipped, unable to provide comprehensive services or good diagnosis and treatment. Their function to provide the first diagnosis can hardly be exercised, and as a result a large number of their patients have to go to big hospitals for treatment. In order to improve the situation and enable township health centres to play its role as designed in the hierarchical medical system, management experts suggest to take measures in the following four aspects: Strengthen the fostering and introduction of more talents and human resources; Increase the investment in advanced medical equipment; Bring in new technologies and new projects through medical consortium or partner assistance programmes; Explore a scientific allocation mechanism and methods. Among these, telemedicine can be considered as a direct, powerful, effective and feasible method. To provide telemedicine services at health centres will enable the populations in remote areas to enjoy advance medical care and services. Telemedicine is not only a good channel to help improve the currently poor primary care at the grassroots level, but also an inevitable development in primary health care. Telemedicine will also be able to provide big data for medical advancement and accelerate the development in clinical medicines. By conjoining global healthcare resources, telemedicine is able to provide advanced medical care and services to the populations covered by the networks. It is proposed in the 13 th Five-Year Plan that one third of the township health centres will upgrade their facilities and improve the services. Qualified health centres can be developed as a branch of county level hospitals. It can be speculated that in near future to set up primary health centres and initiate telemedicine will become the strategy and tactical objectives and direction of improving the level and performances of basic medical care. 9
Swedish Visitors in Yunnan Mr. Anders Hjalmarson, the Chairman of the Scanpeat(Strömsnäsbruk), together with other two experts, conducted a field study tour in Yunnan. They wanted to sell peat soils to Yunnan plantations. Ms. Yanni Shizhou, the Coordinator for business contacts with China in Växjö, visited Blekinge Office in Kunming. Two BTH teachers spent a 3-day holiday in Kunming and made a visit to Blekinge office. 10