A group of journalists from 12 overseas media agencies visit the exhibition hall of the Jinan International Medical Center on Sept 11 in Jinan, capital of Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Jinan will become a cluster for medical science that influences the whole country.

At the end of August, 11 projects, involving medical treatment, scientific research, teaching, rehabilitation and medical care, started construction at the Jinan International Medical Center, which were the second batch of key projects launched by JMC since its establishment.

Jinan, capital city of Shandong province, was the first pilot city in China to launch the construction of national health and medical center.

As such, it released a blueprint last year to build an international medical science center focusing on the research and development of the world's cutting-edge medical health technologies, after more than a year of inspections and planning.

Officials said the center will integrate medical services, medical education, technological research, medical machinery, the biological medicine industry and rehabilitation care, aiming to build a large-scale health system that resembles the Houston Medical Center in the United States.

According to the management committee, to date JMC has secured 144 medical projects, including a college of optometry jointly built by the center and the Pacific University in the United States, and facilities set up by OrigiMed, a molecular diagnostic information provider in Shanghai.

At present, the development of emerging information communication technologies such as the mobile internet, cloud computing and cloud services are profoundly changing the traditional medical and health service mode and big data medical services are gradually becoming a new normal.

Journalists pose for a group photo after visiting the exhibition hall of the Jinan International Medical Center on Sept 11. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhang Ji, vice-director of JMC, said that the national medical health big data north center, one of JMC's key projects, has been running for more than a year since the pilot project was launched.

With an investment of as much as 1.45 billion yuan ($205 million), the project aims to collect the health data of more than 100 million people in northern China to back scientific studies, product R&D and clinical development, Zhang said.

He added that it could not only manage health and medical data resources, but also realize data sharing and break the "data island" between various medical information systems.

"On this basis, we will gradually provide targeted medical services to different groups and promote the integrated development of rehabilitation, elderly care, artificial intelligence, smart medicines and other forms of business."

Another key project of JMC, the Shandong First Medical University welcomed its first batch of medical students this September. The newly merged university mainly focuses on undergraduate and graduate education in the fields of medical care, nursing and pharmacy. It will train and supply top-flight brains to Jinan's medical and health sector.

Located in the JMC, the Proton Clinical Research Center of Shandong Cancer Hospital is designed to become a regional medical oncology center. It will integrate proton medical research and development, treatment, physician and physiologist training, as well as cancer prevention and control research.

An MRI scanner is on display at the exhibition hall of the Jinan International Medical Center. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] 

"We are aiming to build a first-class proton therapy center, training and research base," said Professor Yu Jinming, academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Shandong Cancer Hospital & Institute.

It was also the first center in Asia Pacific to join the FlashForward Consortium which now includes 15 institutions and is focused on preclinical research, clinical implementation and advocacy efforts for state-of-art FLASH therapy.

FLASH therapy is an experimental non-invasive treatment that uses an external beam delivered in high doses, at ultra-high speeds (less than 1 second), in one to three sessions. Experts say it represents an exciting and potentially promising new direction in the treatment of cancer.

JMC is also building a serious disease big data center, a cross-discipline medical study and application center, the China-Japan-South Korea tumor research center and an intelligent robots research center.

According to its management committee, JMC will become a cluster for global high-end medical resources, cutting-edge technologies, international standards, as well as an intelligent and green health zone.

By 2027, the number of specialized hospitals and companies is estimated to reach 30 and 300 respectively. Its annual output value will reach an estimated 60 billion yuan.

By 2030, it plans to build 10 internationally renowned medical institutions, 100 key industrial projects, as well as attract 10 million visits to receive medical services per year and 400 companies. Annual output value is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan.