Key points
- Hangzhou counted 12.70 million residents, 7,592 medical and health institutions and 69,000 practising doctors at the end of 2025, and welcomed 1.44 million inbound overnight visitors in the year.1
- Under PIPL a clinic tells each patient why it processes their health information and how that affects them, and keeps its impact assessment records for at least three years.2
- Even data exports exempt from filing under the CAC's 2024 provisions still need notice, separate consent and an impact assessment, and filings go through the provincial cyberspace office.3
- Zhejiang's health commission has reportedly set 2027 as the year the province completes a national base for AI in medicine, and the CAC's generative AI measures govern the services clinics use.54
Summary
Yes, provided each Hangzhou patient is told why their health information is processed, gives separate consent, and has their records kept in China. wai drafts the notes and replies, and nothing reaches a patient until the doctor or coordinator has signed it off.
A Hangzhou clinic running AI well starts the morning with last night's enquiries already drafted and yesterday's notes signed. Zhejiang is building its health system around AI, and the national rules on personal information and generative AI set clear terms for private clinics.
See it in your clinicThirty minutes on your own patients and doctors.
Request a demoWatch a West Lake visitor's 10.40pm email turn into a booking the coordinator confirms at 8.30, then a note ready for the doctor's signature before the next appointment.
| Body or law | Rule | What to ask | How wai meets it |
|---|---|---|---|
| PIPL Articles 28 to 30 | Health information is sensitive, needs separate consent and a notice of necessity and impact | Where are the notice and the patient's answer stored | Consent recorded in the patient's record before the scribe starts |
| PIPL Articles 54 to 56 | Regular compliance audits, impact assessment records kept at least three years | Can the clinic export who did what, and when | Every message, draft, approval and signature logged and exportable |
| CAC generative AI measures, Article 11 | No unnecessary collection, no unlawful retention of identifying inputs | Are consultation inputs kept, and for how long | Patient data never used to train models, retention agreed with the clinic |
| CAC cross-border provisions, 2024 | Notice, separate consent and assessment for any export, provincial filing for assessments | Does any copy or processing leave China | Records hosted in the clinic's own country, set up with the clinic |
| Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission | The city's health authority for medical institutions | Who signs each clinical output | AI drafts, the doctor reviews and signs |
The private care market in Hangzhou
According to the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics, the city was home to 12.70 million people as 2025 closed, 76,000 more than twelve months before, and 85.3% of them lived in urban districts.1 It had 7,592 medical and health institutions, 440 of them hospitals, staffed by 174,000 health technicians, including 69,000 practising and assistant doctors and 77,000 registered nurses.1
International guests add to that demand. Overnight stays by inbound visitors reached 1.44 million in 2025, a rise of 26.5%, and the city's tourism foreign exchange income came to 1.4 billion US dollars.1 A reply in the evening and a slot the next morning keep those patients with the clinic they first wrote to.
The rules a clinic in Hangzhou works under
The city's health authority is the Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission.7 Above it, the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission issued an action plan in August 2025 that, as reported, sets 2027 as the year the province fully builds a national application base for AI in medicine.5
PIPL puts medical health information in the sensitive category, and Article 30 adds a duty to tell the patient why that processing is necessary and how it affects them.2 Article 54 requires regular compliance audits, and Article 56 requires the impact assessment report and processing records to be kept for at least three years.2 A consent line read before the ambient scribe starts, with the patient's answer saved, covers the first duty.
The CAC's Interim Measures for generative AI services took effect on 15 August 2023. Article 11 bars a provider from collecting unnecessary personal information or unlawfully retaining inputs that identify a user, and requires it to handle requests to access, copy, correct or delete them.4 A clinic choosing an AI tool can ask for that in writing.
Exports of data are narrowly framed. The CAC's 2024 provisions exempt some transfers from filing, including those needed in an emergency to protect a person's life and health, yet Article 10 still requires notice, separate consent and an impact assessment for any personal information sent abroad, and security assessments are filed through the provincial cyberspace office.3 For a clinic whose visitors fly home after treatment, the simplest position is a record that stays in China and a letter the patient carries.
wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with your clinic. wai is compliant with these rules and built for clinics in Hangzhou. The doctor signs each note and letter, the coordinator releases each reply, and the event log they leave behind is what an Article 54 audit reads.
The languages Hangzhou patients write in
China's census does not ask which language people speak at home, so the clearest local signals are residence and travel. At the 2020 census, 46,189 foreign nationals and residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were living in Zhejiang, seventh among China's provinces.6 Hangzhou's inbound overnight visits grew 26.5% in 2025.1
wai works in any language.8 The demo runs on a sample of your own inbox, so you can read every draft in the language the patient chose.
What a demo shows in Hangzhou
At 10.40pm an engineer working in Binjiang emails to ask for a full check-up before a flight home on Friday. Her message joins her existing record, wai sees which hours the doctor's calendar marks as busy, and it proposes Thursday at 9.00 in a draft. The coordinator reads it at 8.30 and approves it.
When a ringing phone goes unanswered in the morning rush, wai writes the follow-up text for the front desk to send, and the caller's later emails stay attached to the same record. On Thursday she says yes to the scribe at the start, the doctor speaks with her while the draft builds, then corrects and signs it. A summary letter for her own doctor abroad is ready to sign before she leaves, and codes are drawn from the signed note.
For Zhejiang hospital groups, insurers and public bodies
Hospital groups, commercial insurers and public health bodies across Zhejiang can have a system of their own built on wai for one defined pathway, with its measures agreed first and data, configuration and model rights written into the contract. Every clinical output is still signed by a clinician. The approach is on the organisations page.
Where to start
First, write the Article 30 notice in plain Chinese, saying why the clinic records the consultation and how the patient is affected, and pair it with a separate consent line drawn from the consent form template.2 Second, run the impact assessment before go-live and diarise its three-year retention.2
Third, ask every AI vendor in writing where records are stored, whether any data leaves China, and how it meets Article 11 of the generative AI measures.34 Fourth, pull last month's after-hours emails into a folder for the demo. What is written here reflects Chinese law as we read it on 15 October 2026, and a Hangzhou lawyer should confirm the detail for your clinic.
Send over a month of the clinic's evening emails and unanswered calls, and we map each one to the slot it could have filled.
Frequently asked questions
What must a Hangzhou clinic tell patients before recording a consultation for AI notes?
Why processing the health information is necessary and how it affects them, under PIPL Article 30, with the patient's separate consent recorded.2
Do PIPL rules require the clinic to audit itself?
Yes. Article 54 requires regular compliance audits, and Article 56 requires impact assessment reports and processing records to be kept for at least three years.2
Can we send a visiting patient's records to their doctor abroad?
Some transfers are exempt from filing under the CAC's 2024 provisions, but notice, separate consent and an impact assessment still apply to any export.3 Many clinics give the patient a signed letter to carry instead.
Which rules cover the AI tool itself?
The CAC's Interim Measures for generative AI services, in force since 15 August 2023, including Article 11 on protecting users' inputs and records.4
Where would our records be hosted?
wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with your clinic.
Could a patient receive an AI reply nobody checked?
No. Replies go out only after the coordinator approves them, and a clinical document leaves the clinic only with the doctor's signature.
Sources
- 1Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics, published by Hangzhou Net, 20262025 Hangzhou statistical communique on national economic and social development (2025年杭州市国民经济和社会发展统计公报)Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 2National People's Congress, 2021Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国个人信息保护法), Articles 28 to 30 and 54 to 56Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 3Cyberspace Administration of China, 2024Provisions on Promoting and Regulating Cross-Border Data Flows (促进和规范数据跨境流动规定), Articles 5, 7 and 10Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 4Cyberspace Administration of China and six other departments, 2023Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services (生成式人工智能服务管理暂行办法)Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 5Tide News (Zhejiang Daily Press Group), 2025Zhejiang's AI plus health three-year plan, report on the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission action plan (2025 to 2027)Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 6National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2021Seventh national population census bulletin No. 8, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents and foreign nationalsRead 15 October 2026Read source
- 7Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission, 2026Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission (杭州市卫生健康委员会)Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 8wai, 2026wai changelog, intake answered by voice in any languageRead 15 October 2026Read source
Every Hangzhou enquiry answered before the first patient arrives.
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