Shanghai aims to nurture 10 leading medical robotic companies in 2025, an official blueprint indicates.
At the International Biopharma Industry Week Shanghai 2023, held on October 16, the city’s healthcare authorities released a three-year action plan, mandating that Shanghai is to establish two industrial parks dedicated to medical robotics and incubate 10 leaders in this area by 2025.
Besides, the action plan pledges to construct 10 world-leading medical robot products, create five robot-focused specialized public service platforms, and build three platforms to showcase the application of medical robots.
By the end of 2025, the city will possess 10 application scenarios for medical robotics that can be replicated and promoted nationwide, the plan adds.
It’s normal for Chinese officials to devise industrial policies and set goals to stimulate the growth of sectors like robotics, an approach that might irk free-market advocates, who believe an industry should be left to thrive or flounder on its own.
Specifically, the official document outlines three segments in need of policy support, namely, surgical, rehabilitation and assistive robots.
Help will be rendered to companies working on endoscopic, dental implant, vascular interventional and orthopedic surgical robots.
Additionally, rehab robot developers are encouraged to roll out devices capable of performing quantitative analysis and simulating a multi-modal environment.
For assistive robots, the plan spells out the need to create disinfection and delivery robots, which are able to navigate complex environments.
Progress is also expected on the development of droids that can perform assistive diagnosis and provide care to patients in critical condition.
In recent years, China has made significant headway in medical robotics. Statistics show that 38 homemade surgical robots have been approved for sale by National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).
