At 8:30 AM on October 17th, the 6th Biomedical Big Data and Intelligent Technology Application Summit smoothly commenced at the West China Angel Hotel. The summit was jointly organized by the "Medicine + Information" Center of Sichuan University, Sichuan Provincial Bioinformatics Society, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, West China Great Health Industry Functional Area Management Committee, and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Distinguished guests including Academicians Chen Runsheng and Jiang Song from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Zhang Wei, Secretary of the Party Committee of West China Hospital, attended the conference to provide guidance. Due to the special period, this conference was different from previous ones, adopting a "hybrid online and offline" model.

    In today's era, information technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence have revolutionized the operational methods and business models in public health management, medical services, and clinical diagnosis and treatment. During the emergency management of the novel coronavirus, big data and artificial intelligence technologies played a crucial role. In line with this background, the summit aimed to promote research, application transformation, and cooperative exchanges in the fields of pandemic control, clinical diagnosis and treatment, bioinformatics, and innovation in medical models using big data and artificial intelligence technologies.

"Intelligent Medical Imaging Assisted Diagnostic System Requirements and Testing Evaluation Methods" Standard Release Ceremony

    At the beginning of the conference, Professor Zhang Wei, the executive chairman of the summit, Director and Professor of the "Medicine + Information" Center of Sichuan University, and Secretary of the Party Committee of West China Clinical Hospital of Sichuan University, delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the organizers. He clarified the purpose of the conference, welcomed the guests, and officially opened the event.

    Subsequently, Mr. Tang Guohui, Vice President of Huawei's Intelligent Data and Machine Vision Product Line, delivered a speech, expressing the company's confidence in and support for the future of biomedical big data as the technical support enterprise for this conference.

    Later, Mr. Jiang Ming, Deputy District Chief of Wuhou District People's Government, Professor Zhou Xueli, Chief Engineer of Sichuan University's Big Data Center, and Mr. Tian Yunhui, Deputy Director of Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology, all took to the stage to deliver speeches. They summarized the contributions of their respective units and enterprises to big data and artificial intelligence and expressed their sincere expectations for this field.

    Before the official reports began, under the witness of all guests and participants, the conference held the "Intelligent Medical Imaging Assisted Diagnostic System Requirements and Testing Evaluation Methods" Standard Release Ceremony, unveiling the red curtain with the group standard printed on it.

    Around 9:00 AM, the conference officially entered the reporting phase. The first to take the stage was Professor Chen Runsheng, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Key Laboratory of Non-coding RNA Biology of the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Professor Chen's report, themed "From COVID-19, Precision Medicine to Nucleic Acid Drugs," started with the origin of the virus, highlighting the difficulty of creating a cure, then introduced the concept of "precision medicine"—the combination of omics big data and medical science, and concluded with the fundamental change in the medical system from diagnosis and treatment to health protection.

Professor Chen Runsheng's Report

    Next, Professor Li Xia and Professor Zhou Xiaohua respectively presented on "Omics Informatics and Precision Medicine for Major Diseases" and "New Models for the Incubation and Infection Periods of the Novel Coronavirus." Around 10:35 AM, a short tea break began, allowing guests to enjoy the refreshments prepared by the venue and recharge for the next round of reports. The second half of the reports continued to be exciting, with Deputy Director Wei Xiaowei, Professor Ding Shuai, Deputy Director Zhang Qun, and Professor Liu Jiang each choosing unique perspectives, combining their academic backgrounds, and focusing on the theme of biomedical big data and artificial intelligence. The morning session concluded smoothly around 12:50 PM.

Professor Li Xia's Report

    At 1:30 PM, undeterred by fatigue, the participants continued the conference. Professor He Shunmin and others delivered distinctive and enlightening reports, offering in-depth analysis and unique insights into the field of biomedical big data and artificial intelligence, and providing detailed analysis of the research status and development prospects of its sub-disciplines.

    Around 5:05 PM, after Mr. Li Jian, Chief Expert of the Smart Healthcare Industry at Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., concluded his report on Huawei's exploration and thoughts on medical big data in the post-pandemic era, the conference came to a successful end. The successful convening of this conference not only shared the cutting-edge developments, latest technologies, and research results in the field of biomedical big data under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic but also conveyed the enthusiasm and sense of responsibility of experts from all walks of life to explore this field.