SIEMENS

In Luochuan, a city with around 200,000 inhabitants and a county seat in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi, people are accustomed to revolutions. They'll tell you it was here that Mao once conducted his first large-scale land reforms. It was also here that he launched the campaign to establish the People's Republic in the prefecture capital of Yan'an, which is located approximately 100 km away. “As you can see, we have long been a base for revolutions,” says Yan Yongxin, the director of Luochuan's public health department, with a laugh.

Now, more radical changes are about to take place in his city, but they have nothing to do with class conflict. Instead, they're examples of the progress resulting from China's reforms. At Luochuan's county hospital, Chinese health experts are working with Siemens on a pilot project that could revolutionize medical care in rural regions. Residents of rural areas could benefit in the future from high-tech developments in medical technology, which until now have been accessible only to residents of China's major cities. “We want to support the effort of Chinese hospitals on all levels to have access to high-quality medical devices at affordable prices,” says Dr. Bernd Ohnesorge, Head of Siemens Healthcare in Northeast Asia. “Our goal is to significantly raise the standard of rural healthcare.”

As part of its S.M.A.R.T. initiative (see article "Budget Scanner"), which primarily targets emerging markets, Siemens has been developing products for years that are Simple, Maintenance-friendly, Affordable, Reliable, and Timely-to-market. At the Siemens Rural Center of Medical Excellence, which was established in Luochuan in 2008, researchers and their Chinese partners are now field testing devices and gaining the experience needed to make a range of products even smarter.

“This probably isn't what you imagine a development laboratory should look like,” says Professor Li Xiaolong, Director of Luochuan's county hospital. “However, the real world is the most effective lab available.” As he stands in the lobby of the drab building, patients are picking up their appointment cards at a barred window. Many are farmers from surrounding villages; others are workers from Luochuan's small factories. And all of them belong to China's large majority — people who no longer need to fear hunger and poverty thanks to the boom of recent decades, but whose wealth so far doesn't include more than a television and a refrigerator.

“When people here get sick, they can't afford to pay much for their treatment,” explains Li. “So to help them to nevertheless get access to good medical care, the government requires that we offer them treatment at very low cost.”

As a consequence, budgets for procuring modern equipment are extremely limited. Essentially, there is only one reason why Luochuan's county hospital got an opportunity to modernize a large share of its medical equipment at a single stroke: Siemens chose it for the development of strategies for the future. To realize this objective, Siemens is working with the Chinese Association of Medical Equipment (CAME) and the Clinton Global Initiative, as part of a project that was initiated in 2007 in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Health. The participants intend to use the knowledge gleaned from the project to not only make medical equipment in rural regions less expensive, but also to optimally adapt it to local conditions.

New Category of Technology. Since 2009, Siemens has donated and delivered a broad range of diagnostic equipment to Luochuan's county hospital, including a CT scanner, X-ray machines, and ultrasound and mammography devices. “That's a completely new class of technology as far as we are concerned,” says Yan. “We can now perform many examinations locally that previously required the patients to make the long journey to the prefecture capital of Yan'an.”

The numbers speak for themselves. In its first year with the new devices, the radiology department produced 20 % more images than was the case in the past. What's more, this figure is almost certain to increase even more quickly as soon as Li manages to hire additional radiologists. Being able to produce CT scans, on the other hand, is something completely new for Luochuan, and the mammography machines allow the hospital to offer breast cancer screenings for the first time. “It's a huge step forward for the women of our region,” says Li.

Hardware isn't the only major change; software is also playing an important role in making improved healthcare more accessible. For instance, since the Siemens devices produce digital images these datasets can be e-mailed to Yan'an University Affiliated Hospital, where specialists can then make a diagnosis. “Modern technology is helping us to network hospitals and make better cross-regional use of available expertise,” adds Li. Instead of being limited, as in the past, to locally-available know-how, it is now possible to make faster, more accurate diagnoses thanks to the Internet. Patients who used to have to plan on long trips can now receive targeted treatment without having to leave their home towns. And digital images enable the hospital to reduce costs as demand for printing and archiving images diminishes.