On March 22, 2019, the First China Critical Care Big Data & Artificial Intelligence Conference was held in Beijing. It was hosted by the Chinese Health Information and Big Data Association (CHIBDA) and organized by PUMCH. More than 2000 medical workers in critical care attended the event.

Present at the meeting were: Jin Xiaotao, former deputy director of National Health and Family Planning Commission and president of CHIBDA, Mao Qunan, director of Department of Planning and Information, NHC, Zhang Xuegao, director of Statistical Information Center, NHC, Jin Dapeng, president of Beijing Medical Association, Cui Yanli, deputy director of Population Culture Development Center, NHC and vice president of CHIBDA, Han Ding, vice president of PUMCH, Professor Chen Dechang (Shanghai), chairman designate of the Chinese Society of Critical Care Medicine, CMA, Professor Ma Penglin, chairman of Chinese Society of Critical Care Medicine, CSCCM, Professor Chen Dechang, former director of Department of Critical Care Medicine, PUMCH, and Professor Liu Dawei, chairman of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, PUMC.

The event also saw the establishment of Society of Critical Care Medicine, Standardization Committee, CHIBDA. Professor Long Yun, director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, PUMCH was elected as the first chairman, deputy director Zhou Xiang was elected as a standing member and secretary general.

As medical technology advanced in recent years, monitoring of patients in critical conditions has developed from vital signs as heartbeat, blood pressure, breath and temperature to multiple organ function assessment including heart, lungs, kidneys and brain. More and more devices appeared at the bedside. At a given time nearly 100 indicators point to a patient’s physical state, and at different times, change of data describes the progress of an illness. Each patient is a gather-together of mass data. Therefore, overall management of data will help with clear diagnosis and accurate treatment.

Clinical manifestations should go together will medical data, said Long Yun. Before some patients show any clinical manifestations, the change of data already indicates problems-- that is a diagnosis given by data. But sometimes manifestations can be separated with data. For example, a patient bleeds, but all coagulation indicators are good. Data do not go together with symptoms--that is a difficulty facing critical care doctors. Therefore, good use of big data brings more accurate and quicker treatment.

Big data-driven clinical treatment and AI will become important directions of critical care medicine. Addressing life-threatening symptoms, the Department of Critical Care Medicine of PUMCH is trying to build big data into diagnosis and treatment procedures, turning them into an AI doctor assisting medical workers at bedside and make patients safer through multi-dimensional management.

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Vice President Han Ding with three-generation directors of Critical Care Medicine (from left: Long Yun, Han Ding, Chen Dechang, Liu Dawei)

Letters of appointment were presented upon establishment of Society of Critical Care Medicine, CHIBDA.