(Yicai Global) May 24 -- A public hospital in Shanghai and an institutional investor have formed a new digital healthcare innovation center which will invest CNY10 million (USD1.4 million) per year to come up with virtual products for kids and adolescents.

Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, Marathon Venture Partners, and the China Medicine Education Association established the new hub to develop new products for pediatric care, Yicai Global learned from the founders yesterday.

It is very important to quickly give more people access to doctors via digital tools because China has a low ratio of medical staff to its total population so telemedicine can play a greater role in China than even in the United States, according to Yang Ruirong, partner of Marathon Venture Partners.

The center is already planning eight partnership projects, including a children's nutrition and health center with an investment of CNY3.3 million (USD467,594) and a CNY3 million program to diagnose and treat adolescents with scoliosis.

Telemedicine requires upstream and downstream parts of the industrial chain to be integrated so the hub brings clinical capacities, investors, technical parties, and academic organizations together, per Li Qinghong, secretary-general of CMEA's digital medical committee.

The medical industry will have structural changes in the next decade, Yang said, adding that Marathon Venture Partners will focus on access to medical services, innovative payment, and efficiency in the field of digital healthcare.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi