Why did Haier enter the field of biomedicine? Zhang Ruimin said that!

Zhang Ruimin: Reshaping the Biomedical Ecology with IoT Thinking

On the morning of June 11th, the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Health Forum was held at the China Railway Expo City Conference Center in Qingdao. At the opening ceremony, Zhang Ruimin, Chairman and Executive Officer of Haier Group, talked about how Haier, a brand enterprise in the Internet of Things ecosystem, can enter the field of biomedicine and reshape the biomedicine ecosystem with the Internet of Things model.

Haier is well-known as a home appliance company. As a white goods brand selected by the consulting firm Euromonitor for ten consecutive years, Haier has not had much traditional business in the medical field and does not have abundant industry resources. Why did Haier enter the field of biomedicine and still make a name for itself? For this question, Zhang Ruimin gave the answer: "It's because Haier has adopted an IoT mindset to disrupt the traditional medical industry

How to change the healthcare industry through IoT thinking? Zhang Ruimin uses several examples of Haier's operations to illustrate this issue.

In Shanghai, Haier merged two hospitals that were previously struggling, and according to industry norms, it takes at least 5 years to turn losses into profits. In Haier's view, an important manifestation of the Internet of Things model is the experience economy, which requires hospitals to be patient-centered, a feature that traditional hospitals centered around doctors do not possess. Operating in an IoT mode to provide patients with a better experience, Haier revitalized these two hospitals in just 9 months.

Biological refrigeration equipment is a traditional business of Haier. In the current era of the Internet of Things, Haier has deeply integrated IoT technology with low-temperature storage technology, making these devices no longer simply electrical appliances, but networked devices. Based on these network devices and combined with distributed and traceable blockchain technology, Haier has built one biomedical ecosystem after another, including blood network, vaccine network, and biological sample library. Taking blood management as an example, Haier has designed a blood storage device equipped with blockchain technology for hospitals, which enables full process tracking of blood usage and solves the problems of tight blood supply and high rate of poor blood use during surgery.

Haier is committed to solving problems in the field of biomedicine through the Internet of Things model. Zhang Ruimin said that at present, these biomedical solutions are not only promoted to the countries along the "the Belt and Road", but also Haier has won the bid with a more scientific and more responsive IoT solution in developed countries in Europe.

Through big data technology and continuously upgraded software and hardware support, Haier's ∑ knife equipment can achieve personalized customized surgical plans for patients. This makes Chinese made products more competitive than traditional European products.

In Zhang Ruimin's view, the essence of the Internet of Things is the Internet of People. He said that if people's emotions cannot be connected, the Internet of Things is aimless. The IoT model understood and practiced by Haier is a "people-oriented" model, which revolves around human needs and uses technologies such as 5G, big data, and blockchain to drive the Internet of Things to meet people's experiences and their pursuit of a better life.