China leads the pack in the next healthcare breakthrough with the government and stalwart innovators bankrolling a big effort in artificial intelligence and big data that could essentially blaze a new trail in the sector, says an expert. "For years, the United States has been seen as the impeccable frontrunner for a big bang coming in the healthcare sector, in terms of money invested in digital healthcare, as well as the number of groundbreaking startups," said Sigal Atzmon, president of Medix Group, an international company that offers medical case management. "When it comes to the implementation of trailblazing technologies in the healthcare sector, however, China is the clear leader," Atzmon noted. Unlike the United States, where people have the "whole existing infrastructure legacy" that must be taken down and an awfully lot of stakeholders involved who may not favor a change, China has much more freedom to chart its own course and implement the game-changing technologies thanks to the "late-mover advantage", or how innovative newcomers outperform pioneers, she said. The Belgium-born senior corporate executive, who founded Medix in 2006 after her own scary experience with a breast mammogram, believes AI technology and digital healthcare stand as the unique and cost-effective answer for the country's under-doctored, underfunded and overburdened hospitals, where patients reportedly have to wait a long time or even pay large sums of money to middlemen to get appointments with renowned specialists.