Simon Li, Chief Business Officer of French health technology startup Al-Stroke. (Photo: Wang Mingjie/China Daily)
A prime example of French-China cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI), AI Stroke is the world’s most urgent medical challenge, stroke detection, and the fast-growing French health technology startup that tackles one of the worlds.
At the heart of AI-Stroke’s strategy is to deepen collaboration with Chinese healthcare institutions, researchers and health investors. China has the largest number of stroke cases worldwide and is an essential partner for innovation, testing and deployment.
AI-Stroke specializes in using AI to detect strokes in the early stages. This is a critical few minutes before a patient arrives at the hospital. The technology is based on the internationally recognized high-speed protocols (face, arm, voice, time) that AI-Stroke is digitizing using computer vision and voice analysis. The software recognizes facial paralysis, arm motor dysfunction, and voice difficulty via a simple mobile app or camera, and can make a preliminary diagnosis within 2 minutes.
Simon Lee, the company’s chief business officer, believes China is not just a strategic market, but a key partner. “Strokes are now the number one issue for the health of Chinese citizens,” Lee said. “China has the largest number of stroke cases in the world, especially as the population ages. For us, it is a priority market in both volume and urgency.”
According to data presented by AI-Stroke at the Vivedch conference in Paris, China records 3 million new stroke cases each year, with over 17 million stroke survivors living there. Strokes are the main cause of death and disability in the country, and the burden on the healthcare system is enormous. These numbers make China the most important global market for any stroke-related medical solution.
Born in China and educated in France and the US, Li joined startups and led global business development. His background allows him to bridge the cultural, regulatory and commercial gaps between the East and West. “The company was founded by the founders of France, a serial entrepreneur and engineer,” he explained. “When technology is ready to commercialize, they realised they needed someone with knowledge of the Chinese market and healthcare system. That’s what I came.”
Li explained that AI-Stroke’s ambitions in China are commercial and collaborative. On the commercial side, they believe there is great potential when deploying apps across China’s ambulance systems. International studies suggest that up to a third of stroke cases are not recognized during emergency transport. The technology can also help stroke survivors face a 13% chance of recurrence within a year by enabling home surveillance and early detection.
The startup is actively involved with Chinese healthcare institutions, including top hospitals such as Tiantan Hospital in Beijing and Hudang University in Shanghai, creating localized databases and adapting AI to the Chinese demographics. “So far, our AI is primarily trained on European data,” Li said. “We are currently working to build a dataset of patients in China, so the solution works equally well for local users.”
Li emphasized that this collaboration is about expertise and not just data. “We want to lead us to the best Chinese neurologists,” he said. “We also hope to work with Chinese AI engineers and raise capital from local investors. It’s a complete circle collaboration.”
He also noted that China’s pro-policy environment will further strengthen cases of expansion. Under the Healthy China 2030 initiative, stroke prevention and faster diagnosis are defined as national priorities. “The government is giving a lot of support in terms of how to reduce misdiagnosis, accelerate triage and enable access to care in rural and low-resource settings,” Li said.
When global competition in AI is growing, AI-Stroke considers international cooperation essential. “AI is the business of data,” Li said. “If countries work alone, no one will help. If they train with just one demographic, the solution is not generalized. We need AI that can help everyone, across languages, ethnicities, and systems.”
wangmingjie@mail.chinadalyuk.com
