Since Ping An Smart City‘s smart healthcare team, Ping An Smart Healthcare, launched its COVID-19 Smart Image-Reading System in February 2020, it has supported over 1,500 medical institutions across China. The system assists radiologists to conduct smart Computed Tomography (CT) image-reading for patients suspected of contracting COVID-19 -- more than 1,000 cases every day, with over a million images from around 20,000 suspected cases analyzed to date.

Fast, accurate analysis is critical to early diagnosis and treatment. Using clinical data to train its artificial intelligence (AI) model, Ping An Smart Healthcare’s COVID-19 Smart Image-Reading System can effectively execute the Computed Tomography (CT) image-reading and identify the presence of COVID-19 in just 15 seconds, down from a typical 15 minutes by manual methods.

To date, the COVID-19 Smart Image-Reading System has been included in the recommended list of epidemic prevention products by over 10 provincial and municipal governments, including Tianjin, Chongqing, Hubei, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Hainan and Fuzhou. The system will likely be applied in Europe and North America in the coming months.

Ping An Smart Healthcare is affiliated to Ping An Smart City, a subsidiary of the Group. It uses the Group's three core technologies: AI, blockchain and cloud computing. These technologies connect multiple information sources and people to access, share and analyze data multiple sources to provide integrated health care solutions. Ping An Smart Healthcare utilizes information technology to assist relevant government departments to examine the epidemic, support medical organizations at different levels to innovate on diagnosis and treatment models and increase service efficiency to assist the public in receiving timely information.

Other key initiatives by Ping An Smart Healthcare to support epidemic management include:

• AskBob, an AI health assistant – Ping An Smart Healthcare has launched AskBob on over 300 new media platforms to provide timely epidemic-related information, information inquiry, epidemic analysis, self-examination, psychological evaluation and assistance as well as smart FAQs (frequently asked questions)

• Chatbots – Fast, accurate analysis is critical to early diagnosis and treatment. Ping An Smart Healthcare launched chatbots in late February 2020 for use in nearly 20 communities in Wuhan to increase efficiency in handling epidemic-related phone enquiries. The system has processed over 900 suspected COVID-19 cases so far.

• Prediction and analysis of epidemic trends and their expected economic impacts in China – Ping An Smart Healthcare has assisted in epidemic forecasting for 7 days in advance and 24 hours in advance. So far, forecast and analysis reports have been provided to 15 provinces and cities so that local authorities can make better decisions and take appropriate measures. Global epidemic data and statistics of case fatality rates, as well as economic trends in various countries, have been collected for analysis as well.

• COVID-19 Psychological Counselling Platform – China’s first mental health support platform taps on the academic resources of the Psychological Relief Branch of China Association for Disaster & Emergency Rescue Medicine and the National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders. It is jointly established by the Hunan Psychiatric Medical Center, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University and the Second People's Hospital of Hunan Province. Experienced counselors with clinical psychology training are taking calls from people affected by the COVID-19 including front-line medical personnel, infected and suspected patients to provide expert advices.