In the Mao era, ‘barefoot doctors’ received just a few months of training before being sent out to straighten broken bones and administer vaccines. Now China’s researchers make world-class cancer drugs, cheap surgical robots and cutting edge brain-computer interfaces. Its doctors make AI-powered avatars of themselves to deal with ever more patients.
But China is growing old before it grows rich. Cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular problems are ballooning. And its aging crisis is coming on faster because of the legacy of its one-child policy. How will China adapt?
Ruby Wang worked on the NHS Covid frontline before becoming Head of Health at the British Embassy in Beijing. And now she’s written The China Cure: The Rise of Biotech, AI Medicine and a Global Health Superpower. She tells Richard Hames how China got from barefoot doctors to high-tech hospitals, what it learned from Covid, and what the NHS could learn from China.
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