A well known health expert recently joined a trip to Shenzhen to see AI-based diagnostic, laboratory and hospital technologies. His takeaway: in China, healthcare AI is becoming everyday infrastructure rather than a pilot project. Central and Eastern Europe should take note before repeating an old mistake.
Numbers that are hard to picture
China’s health system recorded 10.65 billion patient visits in 2025, according to the National Health Commission. That is roughly 29 million a day.
One example is the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, which, according to Huawei’s case study, runs 12,400 beds across five campuses and performs about 460,000 operations a year. The delegation also visited a pathology centre that reportedly processes 20 million tissue samples annually with AI support. At that volume, algorithmic help is a necessity.
The backdrop is a tech hub. In 2025, WIPO ranked the Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou area first among the world’s science and technology clusters. Huawei alone employs 114,000 people in R&D, about 53.7% of its workforce.
Not a chatbot, but built-in intelligence
The key insight is about depth, not size. In the West, AI often runs as a standalone tool, such as a single chatbot. In China, the next layer is being built into core hospital systems (HIS, RIS, PACS). In practice, the aim is that the system:
- analyses lab results, imaging (CT, MRI, X-ray) and pathology samples in real time,
- flags subtle or overlooked abnormalities,
- automates documentation,
- guides patients through where to go and what comes next.
Huawei in European hospitals: mostly behind the scenes
Huawei is no longer an exotic name in European healthcare. But where it appears, it is mostly in the hidden technical layer that hospitals run on, not in the tools doctors use with patients.
In practice, that means the computer systems that store and move data. Greece’s national health service, EOPYY, uses Huawei data-centre infrastructure, the servers and facilities where its data is kept and processed. Essen University Hospital in Germany runs Huawei storage systems for its data. In Spain, the hospital group HM Hospitales has modernised its network with Huawei, meaning the connections that link its systems together.
Huawei also lists Asklepios, Toulouse and Imperial College Healthcare among its European references, that is, customers it names as examples of its work in the region.
Two cautions apply. First, these examples say little about artificial intelligence: having Huawei hardware in the server room is not the same as using Huawei AI to support diagnosis or treatment. Second, nor does it mean these institutions run entirely on Huawei.
Seen this way, a division of strengths emerges. Europe leads in data protection and clinical regulation, the rules for keeping patient data safe and medical technology trustworthy. China, meanwhile, has moved ahead in AI applications, the software tools built on top of that infrastructure.
What patients and doctors could gain
Done well, AI does not replace doctors but acts as a second pair of eyes. The hoped-for benefits are earlier detection of cancer and degenerative disease, shorter waits for results, fewer errors by overloaded on-call staff, and more time at the bedside. The expert argues that if the system took over 60–70% of documentation and data reconciliation, doctors could focus on patients again. That figure is his estimate, not a measured result.
The lesson for the region
Hungary and its neighbours have accumulated a lag in physical hospital infrastructure. Repeating that in digital systems would be a strategic error. The answer is not copying China, but sovereign, adaptive adoption: systems proven on millions of patients, used within GDPR, the EU AI Act and MDR, and judged by outcomes rather than by the number of new CT scanners. The window for leapfrogging is open now.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/kokajanos
Transparency Note: This article was prepared with the assistance of artificial intelligence technologies. Every piece is thoroughly reviewed and verified by our editorial team, who retain full responsibility for the final content.
Picture: Freepik AI