An interdisciplinary team led by Prof. Alex HE Jingwei, Professor in the Division of Public Policy, and Prof. HAN Sirui, Assistant Professor in the Division of Emerging Interdisciplinary Areas, has developed Health Reform China Observatory (HECO)—a specialized large language model designed for health policy analysis in China. The model was officially presented at a high-profile conference in Beijing on June 27, 2026, hosted jointly by the China Health Development Center and the School of Public Health at Peking University.

HECO was built to deliver extensive and professional health policy analysis for the Chinese context and beyond. The model has been validated by approximately 30 stakeholder users across the Chinese health system, including local health officials, hospital administrators, clinical leaders, physicians, health policy analysts, and industry practitioners. In a blinded evaluation, HECO outperformed leading general-purpose large language models on all critical dimensions, including analytical accuracy, depth of reasoning, clarity of expression, citation of evidence, and experiential fit.

The Beijing conference was attended by senior officials from the National Health Commission, local health authorities, official think tanks, clinical leaders, and peer researchers. HECO was soft-launched on campus in March 2026 at an event attended by senior scholars from the World Health Organization, the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and local industry practitioners.

The project reflects the team’s commitment to harnessing AI for evidence-informed policymaking and to strengthening health system governance through interdisciplinary collaboration.