China Unveils Ambitious Five-Year Plan to Integrate AI Across Healthcare System

China Launches National AI Healthcare Strategy

China officially unveiled a comprehensive plan on November 4, 2025, to deeply integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into its national healthcare system over the next five years, with ambitious targets extending to 2030. This strategic blueprint was jointly issued by the National Health Commission (NHC) and four other prominent government bodies, including the top economic planner, signaling a significant top-down push to modernize the country's medical infrastructure. The initiative aligns with the State Council's broader 'Artificial Intelligence+' initiative, aiming to leverage AI for national development.

Enhancing Diagnostics and Patient Services with AI

The plan outlines specific goals for the widespread adoption of AI technologies in diagnostics and patient services. By 2027, China aims to establish a robust foundation of high-quality, reliable healthcare datasets and trusted data spaces. This will facilitate the widespread use of AI-assisted primary care, intelligent clinical decision support systems, and smart patient services across medical institutions. By 2030, the goal is to have AI-assisted diagnosis universally available in primary care facilities, while all secondary and higher-level hospitals are expected to routinely employ AI for tasks such as medical imaging analysis and clinical decision support.

Key applications in patient services include intelligent systems for appointment scheduling, triage, pre-diagnosis, and follow-up care, designed to streamline the entire patient journey. Hospitals are also encouraged to deploy intelligent pre-consultation services, precise appointment scheduling, virtual accompaniment, and bedside intelligent devices for real-time patient monitoring and nursing tasks. A central objective is to empower grassroots healthcare providers and reduce disparities between urban and rural healthcare access, with AI-powered diagnostics in village health centers and community clinics projected to benefit over 600 million rural residents.

AI's Role in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Public Health

A significant focus of the plan is the integration of AI into Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). AI will be harnessed to build specialized knowledge bases and high-quality datasets, leading to the development of sophisticated diagnostic and treatment models for TCM. The strategy also encourages the creation of end-to-end traceability systems for herbal medicines and the implementation of intelligent management throughout the entire supply chain, from cultivation and processing to clinical use.

In the realm of public health, authorities intend to upgrade China's intelligent epidemiological investigation systems. This enhancement aims to provide real-time and more precise support for infectious disease prevention and control efforts.

Implementation, Investment, and Guiding Principles

The rollout of this ambitious strategy is planned in several phases. Initial infrastructure planning is scheduled from November 2025 to March 2026, followed by pilot implementations in 50 hospitals and 500 township clinics from April to December 2026. The government has allocated an estimated CNY 15-20 billion (approximately USD 2-3 billion) over five years to fund this comprehensive strategy.

The plan is guided by four core principles: prioritizing real-world applications, strengthening primary healthcare, encouraging collaboration between government, industry, and research institutions, and ensuring safety and controllability. Authorities emphasize that AI should support, rather than replace, clinicians, with data security and privacy protection remaining central to the plan's implementation.