According to the news on the Zhitong Finance APP on July 11th, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government Office has issued a notice on the "Action Plan for Promoting Technological Innovation and Development of Elderly Care in Shanghai". The plan mentions the development of artificial intelligence models and algorithms for voice, face, emotion, action recognition, and environmental perception, as well as the development of new technologies such as generative artificial intelligence, to improve the independent perception, learning, decision-making, and execution capabilities of elderly care technology products. By 2027, a preliminary highland for innovation and industrial development in elderly care technology will be built to provide technological support for meeting the increasingly high-level, multi-level, and personalized elderly care needs of the city's growing elderly population, and to build an "everywhere" elderly care service system.

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The Shanghai Municipal People's Government Office has issued a notice on the "Action Plan for Promoting Technological Innovation and Development of Elderly Care in Shanghai (2024-2027)".

Shanghai Municipal Government Office [2024] No. 8

To all district people's governments, municipal government committees, offices, bureaus, and relevant units:

With the approval of the municipal government, the "Action Plan for Promoting Technological Innovation and Development of Elderly Care in Shanghai (2024-2027)" is hereby issued to you for careful implementation.

Shanghai Municipal People's Government Office

June 13th, 2024

Action Plan for Promoting Technological Innovation and Development of Elderly Care in Shanghai (2024-2027)

To implement the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Developing the Silver Economy to Promote the Well-being of the Elderly", thoroughly implement the national strategy of actively responding to population aging, and promote the technological innovation and development of elderly care in this city, this action plan is formulated.

I. Main objectives

By 2027, a preliminary highland for innovation and industrial development in elderly care technology will be built to provide technological support for meeting the increasingly high-level, multi-level, and personalized elderly care needs of the city's growing elderly population, and to build an "everywhere" elderly care service system. One elderly care technology industrial park will be created. One to two high-quality incubators, 3-5 enterprise technology innovation centers, and 1-2 research and development testing public service platforms will be built. Five to ten leading enterprises will be introduced and fostered. Five to ten elderly care technology product display and experience centers will be built. Five to ten home-based aging renovation, home care bed, smart community elderly canteen, smart elderly care technology community, and smart elderly care homes and other elderly care technology application scenarios will be improved, upgraded, and created. A basic elderly care service comprehensive platform for Shanghai will be preliminarily built, with an average annual service of more than 5 million elderly people.

II. Strengthening technological innovation, product development, and service platform construction

(1) Strengthen key technology research

1. Intelligent sensing technology. Develop anti-interference and high-precision data processing algorithms and other technologies to improve the perceptual capabilities of wearable devices' flexible sensors for temperature, blood oxygen, electrocardiogram, and other functions. Develop indoor (outdoor) positioning and navigation, infrared high-sensitivity detection, millimeter-wave radar sensing, and other positioning and high-precision recognition technologies to improve the real-time positioning and multimodal behavior perception capabilities of the elderly, such as travel and indoor movement. (Responsible Unit: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission)

2. Information and communication technology. Research and develop new technologies in edge computing, cloud computing, blockchain, big data, internet of things, wireless communication, and other fields to improve the wireless communication efficiency of intensive terminals in elderly care institutions, and comprehensively enhance the data transmission, confidentiality, sharing, and analysis capabilities of elderly care technology products. (Responsible Unit: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission)

3. Artificial intelligence technology. Develop artificial intelligence models and algorithms for voice, face, emotion, action recognition, and environmental perception, as well as new technologies such as embodied intelligence and generative artificial intelligence to improve the independent perception, learning, decision-making, and execution capabilities of elderly care technology products. (Responsible Unit: Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Science and Technology Commission)

(2) Promote key product development

1. Life-assistance products. Develop vision-assisted products such as electronic zoom glasses, hearing-assisted products such as intelligent noise-cancelling bone conduction hearing aids, and walking-assisted products such as intelligent tracking wheelchairs, and apply adaptive environmental perception, indoor (outdoor) positioning and navigation, edge computing, and other technologies to enhance human ergonomics design, and improve product multi-scene adaptability, comfort, and portability. (Responsible Unit: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Health Commission, Municipal Drug Administration)

2. Health service products. Develop portable devices such as wearable devices for monitoring heart attacks and non-invasive sleep respiratory monitors, and apply anti-interference, low-latency wireless transmission, high-precision data processing algorithms, millimeter-wave radar sensing, and other technologies to enhance the dynamic monitoring, real-time management, and intelligent warning functions of products. (Responsible Unit: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Health Commission, Municipal Drug Administration)

3. Rehabilitation assistance products. Develop rehabilitation products for neurological function damage rehabilitation and rehabilitation robots, exoskeleton robots and other health promotion equipment, apply brain-computer interface, embodied intelligence and other technologies to enhance artificial intelligence evaluation, active and passive training, limb function reconstruction and other functions. (Responsible units: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Health Commission, Municipal Drug Administration)

4. Safety monitoring products. Develop intelligent monitoring equipment such as anti-fall monitoring devices and visualized, intelligent one-button calling and alarm devices, and apply multi-modal behavior perception, infrared high-sensitivity detection and visual tracking technologies to improve fall alarm, anti-lost, emergency calling and other multi-scene remote monitoring functions. (Responsible units: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Health Commission)

5. Care service products. Develop autonomous daily living products such as voice-controlled intelligent nursing beds (mattresses), nursing robots, and nursing auxiliary products such as intelligent sky tracks and posture converters, and apply intelligent speech recognition, motion control, and generative artificial intelligence technologies to enhance product intelligence and automation levels. (Responsible units: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Health Commission, Municipal Data Bureau)

6. Emotional comfort products. Develop intelligent bionic machine pets, companion (social) robots and other products, apply technologies such as voice, face, emotion and motion recognition, and environmental perception to improve voice recognition, tone simulation, emotional response, intelligent interaction, life assistance, and other functions. (Responsible units: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Health Commission)

(3) Construction of R&D and testing public service platform. A public service platform with functions of software and hardware R&D, process development, product certification, testing and verification, and database services, including a semi-physical and semi-simulation open, replaceable, and expandable technology verification and product R&D environment integrating sensors, wireless networking, and application platforms. It also includes processing and millimeter wave radar, infrared sensors, indoor wireless networking, perception transmission and other product performance testing platforms with small-scale real-system product trial production capabilities. (Responsible units: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, relevant district governments)

(4) Construction of a comprehensive platform for basic elderly care services. Targeting various elderly care models such as home-based, community-based and institutional care, and responding to the full-scenario needs of "medical care, rehabilitation, elderly care and nursing", gather elderly care service resources such as medical care and rehabilitation, establish a comprehensive platform for basic elderly care services to provide support for data sharing, handling matters, and intelligent supervision of elderly care services in various districts and townships, and to provide professional services such as emergency response, safety protection, medical care and rehabilitation, meal delivery, learning and entertainment, and family care bed positioning to the elderly both online and offline. (Responsible units: Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Data Bureau, Municipal Commerce Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Health Commission, Municipal Education Commission, relevant district governments)

Third, promoting innovative product application demonstrations and promotion

(1) Accelerating application demonstrations. Accelerate the implementation of intelligent renovation scenarios for the whole house adapted to aging, promote the demonstration and application of intelligent elderly care technology products and the interconnection of intelligent terminal platforms. Accelerate the construction of smart elderly care institutions, and promote the use of nursing robots, rehabilitation robots and other elderly care technology products in elderly care service agencies. Accelerate the construction of elderly care technology product demonstration and experience bases or experience points in comprehensive elderly services centers, community activity centers, and digital partner micro sites. (Responsible units: Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Commerce Commission, relevant district governments)

(2) Promoting product promotion. Support the inclusion of independently developed elderly care technology products in the innovative product catalog. Deepen the pilot of community-based rental services for rehabilitation aids, explore the inclusion of high-end elderly care technology products such as rehabilitation robots in the rental catalog, and expand the subsidy coverage of rental services. Include elderly care technology products or services in the government's list of purchased services in accordance with regulations. Under the guidance of the National Medical Insurance Bureau, explore the inclusion of qualified therapeutic rehabilitation aids into the scope of medical insurance payment in this city in accordance with procedures. (Responsible units: Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau, Municipal Science and Technology Commission, relevant district governments)

(3) Strengthening insurance protection. Expand the scope of bio-pharmaceutical clinical trials and bio-pharmaceutical product liability insurance to include qualified elderly care technology research and development trials and products in relevant insurance coverage. Improve the compensation mechanism for bio-pharmaceutical clinical trials and bio-pharmaceutical product liability insurance. Strengthen the promotion and application of comprehensive liability insurance and product liability insurance in elderly care institutions. Encourage insurance institutions to explore and develop commercial insurance for innovative elderly care technology products. (Responsible units: Municipal Financial Services Office, Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Shanghai Regulatory Bureau of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission)

(4) Strengthening market cultivation. Carry out silver science and technology product certification and build elderly care technology brands. Promote elderly people to purchase and use elderly care technology products through channels such as the "55 Shopping Festival", Shanghai International Elderly Care, Auxiliary and Rehabilitation Medical Expo, and Dongfang Shopping Channel. Promote new concepts, new technologies and new products of elderly care technology through institutions such as elderly care technology product demonstration and experience bases and elderly universities. (Responsible units: Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Commerce Commission, Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal Education Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Market Supervision Bureau)

Fourth, optimizing the development ecology of the industry

Support enterprise innovation and development. Use innovation spaces, incubators, accelerators, and other platforms to strengthen the incubation and transformation of retirement technology achievements and innovation and entrepreneurship services. Hold Shanghai Retirement Science and Technology Innovation Competition, enrich China's elderly welfare product creative innovation and entrepreneurship competition, and so on. Construction of a group of retirement technology enterprise technology innovation centers. Forming an innovative alliance of enterprises, universities, research institutes, and retirement institutions to promote technological innovation and industrialization of achievements. Support leading companies in related industries to develop retirement technology products. Recognize and support a group of specialized, special and new enterprises in segmented fields, and guide qualified specialized, special and new enterprises to enter Shanghai specialized, special and new board for standardized cultivation. Cultivate a platform-oriented leading enterprise linking community, institutions and families to provide online and offline services around key application scenarios. (Responsible unit: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Education Commission, Shanghai Equity Trust Trading Center, relevant district government)

Build High-Quality Incubators. Focus on key technology areas such as smart sensing, information and communication, and artificial intelligence, build high-quality retirement science and technology incubators, strengthen cooperation and linkage with universities, research institutes, and technology transfer institutions, and promote the transformation of retirement science and technology results and enterprise incubation. (Responsible unit: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, relevant district government)

Build industrial agglomeration zones. Relying on the Dazero Bay Science and Innovation Source Function Zone, give full play to the intellectual advantages of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, East China Normal University, and other units, build the Shanghai Retirement Science and Technology Industry Park, and strive to create a national-level Silver Hair Economy Industrial Park. (Responsible unit: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Minhang District Government)

Improve the standard system. Focus on hardware interfaces, data transmission, and other areas, organize relevant associations, universities, research institutes, and enterprises to develop, release, and promote related standards for retirement technology, and continue to promote the interconnection and interoperability of related retirement technology equipment and systems. Establish a Silver Hair Technology standard system to support related certification work. (Responsible unit: Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Science and Technology Commission)

Fifth, guarantees measures

Strengthen overall planning and coordination. Coordinate relevant departments from the supply and demand sides to jointly promote policy docking, establish a work coordination mechanism, strengthen policy coordination, and provide guarantee for the landing of policies such as technological research, platform construction, product promotion, and park construction. (Responsible unit: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Health Commission, Municipal Committee Financial Office, Municipal Education Commission, Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Municipal Finance Bureau)

Increase investment. Organize the implementation of a retirement technology innovation special project, support the research and development, application transformation, and product development of key technologies, core components, and software, select and support certified silver hair technology products, support the development of public service platforms for research and development testing and basic elderly care service integration platforms, and support the formulation and promotion of related product standards. (Responsible unit: Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Market Supervision Bureau)

Strengthen financial support. Encourage banks to launch special credit policies for retirement technology and develop financial products for small and medium-sized retirement technology enterprises. Explore the establishment of a special fund for retirement technology industry, play the role of government investment fund guidance, encourage social capital investment, increase support for the application and promotion of technology products in retirement service institutions, support mergers and acquisitions, and promote the growth of enterprises. (Responsible unit: Municipal Committee Financial Office, Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Shanghai Regulatory Bureau of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, relevant district government)

Strengthen talent introduction. Give full play to the role of talent plans such as White Magnolia Plan, and accelerate the introduction of retirement science and technology talents. Improve the professional discipline system of elderly care services, medical care and nursing, health management, rehabilitation treatment, and promote cross-disciplinary talent training. Carry out information technology application and skills training for retirement care service personnel and enjoy government training subsidy according to regulations. Strengthen popular science publicity of retirement science and technology products. Strengthen the construction of retirement consultants team, cultivate a group of service personnel with the ability to consult and evaluate retirement technology products. (Responsible unit: Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Municipal Education Commission, Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau)

This article is selected from the official website of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, edited by China Securities Journal: Liu Jiayin.