AWS accelerates healthcare AI innovation to leaders in Greater China region

Healthcare organizations worldwide are rapidly adopting AI to improve patient outcomes and operational efficiency. To accelerate this transformation, Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosted an enablement session with Johns Hopkins University and Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB). It delivered an innovative educational program that bridges the gap between cutting-edge technology and practical healthcare implementation. AWS formulated a plan with Johns Hopkins University and CKGSB to develop healthcare AI leaders across the Greater China region.

The AI-Driven Healthcare Innovation Program is a five-day intensive partnership between Johns Hopkins University and CKGSB that combines academic excellence with practical industry exposure. AWS acted as the bridge for theoretical knowledge with practical implementation of AI healthcare solutions for this program in 2025.

C-suite executives, including over 30 founders, CEOs, and chairmen from healthcare, medical technology, and pharmaceutical companies, engaged in hands-on demonstrations and real-world case studies at AWS HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia. The program targets senior leaders seeking to implement AI applications and digital transformation strategies in their healthcare organizations.

AWS healthcare technologies in action

Healthcare providers need to focus on patient care, not on managing complex cloud infrastructure. That’s why AWS offers a comprehensive suite of managed services designed specifically to help healthcare organizations streamline their operations.

Amazon Transcribe is an automatic speech recognition service that converts speech to text with high accuracy, enabling healthcare organizations in Greater China to efficiently digitize verbal communications. Healthcare providers are leveraging Amazon Transcribe to convert recorded patient consultations, medical conferences, and training sessions into searchable text documents.

The service supports Mandarin Chinese with specialized vocabulary customization, allowing medical teams to add domain-specific terminology and improve transcription accuracy for healthcare contexts. By implementing custom language models, hospitals have reduced transcription errors by up to 40% compared to generic speech recognition systems.

Amazon Transcribe has batch processing capabilities, which provide healthcare organizations a way to process large volumes of recorded content efficiently. Real-time streaming transcription supports immediate documentation during patient consultations. Healthcare administrators in the region particularly value the service’s ability to identify different speakers in conversations, making it quicker to distinguish between healthcare provider and patient interactions in transcribed documents.

By integrating Amazon Transcribe with other AWS services, healthcare organizations in Greater China are building comprehensive documentation solutions that maintain patient privacy, while significantly reducing administrative workloads.

Amazon SageMaker JumpStart provides pretrained models for healthcare-specific AI applications. Healthcare executives in China are discovering new possibilities through the DeepSeek model, a powerful foundation model designed specifically for healthcare applications, available to use in Amazon SageMaker JumpStart. DeepSeek excels at processing medical terminology in both English and regional languages (such as Mandarin and Cantonese), making it particularly valuable for healthcare organizations in Greater China.

The service includes built-in security controls and compliance features to help organizations meet local healthcare regulations. The scalable infrastructure of SageMaker enables cost-effective model training and deployment. By combining domain-specific healthcare data with the foundation models of SageMaker, organizations can create customized generative AI solutions. They can address regional healthcare challenges, while improving both operational efficiency and patient outcomes.

Note: Service availability varies by region. Check the services available in your region. Amazon Transcribe and Amazon SageMaker JumpStart are available in the Greater China region. Healthcare use cases in the Greater China region are available.

To demonstrate practical applications of AWS services, the team showcased an integrated solution combining Amazon Transcribe and Amazon SageMaker JumpStart. This solution helps healthcare providers streamline clinical documentation, while verifying compliance with organizational policies.

Let’s explore a real-world scenario that healthcare organizations in China can implement today. This solution demonstrates how AWS services work together to transform clinical documentation workflows.

Specific use case

Using AI-powered real-time analysis, physicians can now convert patient conversations into structured medical documentation that automatically aligns with compliance requirements. This innovative approach reduces administrative burden, so healthcare providers can dedicate more time to meaningful patient interactions, while maintaining high documentation standards.

Figure 1 – Solution architecture diagram

Let’s walk through how to get started with such solution:

1. Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) stores all healthcare documentation policies, electronic health record (EHR) templates, insurance requirements, and regulatory guidelines. AWS Lambda triggers when these resources are updated.
2. Lambda uses Amazon Transcribe to extract the information from various clinical recordings and convert it to text.
3. Searchable vectors are created from processed documentation guidelines, templates, and regulatory requirements, then stored in a ChromaDB (an open-source vector database) with Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) for secure healthcare data persistence.
4. The provider can chat with the system through a secure, compliant interface integrated with their EHR system.
5. A healthcare provider initiates a documentation query through a secure interface integrated with their EHR system.
6. AWS Lambda performs a maximal marginal relevance (MMR) similarity search to find the most relevant documentation guidance.
7. The solution pulls applicable templates, coding requirements, and specific organizational policies.
8. AWS Lambda sends a request to Amazon SageMaker JumpStart, combining the provider’s query and retrieved guidelines.
9. Amazon SageMaker JumpStart foundation models (FMs) generate clear, compliant documentation instructions.
10. Structured, step-by-step guidance is returned to the provider within their workflow, including required fields, appropriate codes, and relevant templates.

This technical architecture resonates strongly with healthcare leaders in the region. Phoebe Hsu, Chairman of Ten-Chen Hospital in Taiwan, emphasizes the human impact of these solutions: “AWS’s automatic documentation solution would free physicians and nursing staff from administrative burdens by generating records directly from patient conversations, allowing them to focus on empathy, clinical work and connection.” Her perspective highlights how technical innovation directly translates to improved patient care.

Real-world implementation plans

Healthcare leaders are already planning strategic adoption of these technologies. Hsu shares her vision: “I believe Amazon Transcribe can significantly improve clinical efficiency and enhance physician-patient relationships by allowing doctors to interact more with patients rather than screens.”

Building on this foundation, Hsu sees extensive applications for SageMaker JumpStart across multiple departments: “With SageMaker JumpStart, we could accelerate AI adoption in priority areas such as medical imaging, documentation, and clinical decision support, improving both speed and accuracy of patient care. I would be very willing to implement it into our medical coding and billing department. There are many NHS guidelines and billing details that highly rely on our coding and billing staff to review before submitting an invoice to NHS. Those guidelines might be updated quarterly or even sometimes with short notice. I can see this is how SageMaker JumpStart can be helpful.”

She also envisions broader clinical applications: “Another application would be [to] utilize its massive integrated medical data, to provide an accurate, up to date clinical second opinion to physicians. Allowing patients to be more informed, thus further enhance shared decision making.”

The multilingual capabilities of DeepSeek particularly address regional needs. Hsu explains: “Integrating DeepSeek on AWS would be a game-changer for multilingual healthcare delivery. Our teams frequently manage medical records in English and Mandarin, and this solution would greatly reduce translation errors, while protecting patient data through AWS’s secure cloud.” This capability is essential for healthcare organizations serving diverse populations across the Greater China region.

Tian Xingxing, CEO of Shanghai Xingzhiguang Biotechnology Company states, “I plan to integrate AWS AI services into high-demand scenarios, such as chronic disease management and initial image screening.”

The impact: Scaling healthcare AI education

This event demonstrates the commitment of AWS to advance healthcare innovation through education. The program’s success highlights key benefits:

• Practical application: Hands-on experience with AWS healthcare technologies
• Industry connections: Direct engagement with AWS experts and real-world use cases
• Strategic literacy: Healthcare leaders developed foundational AI implementation understanding
• Regional adaptation: Solutions tailored to specific market challenges
• Scalable framework: Model for replicating educational collaborations globally

Professor Gordon Gao from Johns Hopkins notes, “Healthcare executives face uncertainty about both AI’s practical value and safety implications. This program addresses both through practical exposure to proven AWS solutions.”

The broader infrastructure transformation potential extends beyond individual services. Hsu observes: “AWS managed healthcare services would help modernize our infrastructure, so clinicians spend less time troubleshooting IT systems and more time caring for people. Taken together, these tools reflect how technology can humanize healthcare by simplifying complexity and restoring time to the patient relationship.”

She addresses a critical pain point facing hospitals globally: “Hospitals often suffer from lack of well-trained IT professionals, and many IT problems seem very similar (or the same) among every hospital. If AWS can take over our IT team and be a real time in house service IT solution provider, it would be such a great idea, and I truly think every hospital will benefit from it.”

As healthcare systems worldwide face rising costs and staff shortages, educational collaborations like this prepare leaders for AI-driven transformation. AWS continues expanding educational initiatives that bridge cutting-edge technology with practical healthcare applications.

Hsu concludes with a forward-looking perspective: “Ultimately, I hope to see more locally developed AI solutions that could be more cost-effective and accessible to a larger patient population.”

By working with leading academic institutions and bringing healthcare leaders directly to AWS facilities, these programs illuminate how AI adoption is both strategically sound and practically achievable. This success provides a blueprint for scaling healthcare AI education globally, while addressing unique regional needs.

Ready to explore AWS healthcare solutions? Visit AWS for Healthcare & Life Sciences to learn more or contact an AWS Representative to know how we can help accelerate your business.

Figure 2 – Group photo in the Amazon HQ2 atrium

Further reading

• DeepSeek-R1 model now available in Amazon Bedrock Marketplace and Amazon SageMaker JumpStart
• Healthcare & Life Sciences Case Studies
• Getting Started with AWS Services in AWS China (Beijing) Region and AWS China (Ningxia) Region
• CKGSB and Johns Hopkins University Launch AI-Driven Healthcare Innovation Program