The number of remote medical imaging diagnosis services in counties has exceeded 68 million this year, "said Jiao Yahui, Director of the Grassroots Department of the National Health Commission, at a press conference held on the 27th. With the empowerment of" artificial intelligence+", 80% of counties (cities, districts) have initially established county-level imaging, electrocardiogram, and laboratory resource sharing centers to achieve grassroots examinations and county-level diagnoses; Telemedicine, Internet medicine, mobile patrol medical vehicles, etc. also help to fill the "gaps" in mountainous areas, islands, remote poverty and other places. Data shows that over 90% of residents in China can access convenient medical and health services within 15 minutes. In 2024, the number of visits to primary medical and health institutions in counties accounted for 63.4% of the national total, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from the previous year. More and more rural residents are giving priority to primary medical and health institutions for medical treatment. To further address the key and difficult health issues in rural areas, starting from 2021, 12 counties across the country will be selected to carry out the construction of grassroots health comprehensive pilot zones. The county committee will establish a health working committee, with one government leader overseeing medical care, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals. Recently, we have completed the effectiveness evaluation, and by 2024, the proportion of diagnosis and treatment in grassroots medical and health institutions in 12 comprehensive pilot zones has reached 69.1%, which is higher than the national average level. Jiao Yahui introduced that currently, 186 comprehensive pilot zones have been selected and constructed at the provincial level, and the experience of national comprehensive pilot zones has been promoted in stages. Taking Guangxi as an example, while supporting the construction of the National Comprehensive Experimental Zone in Shangsi County, we also support the construction of an autonomous region level grassroots health comprehensive experimental zone in each of the 14 districts and cities in the region, creating a "smart medical" pilot, promoting remote consultation, AI assisted diagnosis, and community hospital construction. Du Zhenzong, Director of the Health Commission of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, stated that Guangxi is the first to pilot the integration of mature "artificial intelligence+medical" scenarios in Fangchenggang, with a focus on deploying AI assisted diagnosis, intelligent management of chronic diseases, generation of grassroots medical documents, and medical record quality control modules. The system is expected to be deployed and applied in over 50% of grassroots institutions in the region by 2026, helping to improve the accuracy of identifying common and frequently occurring diseases at the grassroots level, and playing an important supporting role in early screening of endemic diseases such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma and thalassemia. Jiao Yahui stated that with the construction of key specialties and the empowerment of artificial intelligence, the establishment rate and service capabilities of some specialties that were previously relatively weak in county-level hospitals, such as oncology, psychiatry, ophthalmology, etc., have greatly improved. (New Society)