In recent years, the concept of population medicine has emerged as a research field that has important implications for healthcare practice and policy decision-making. It specifically aims to improve overall health of patient populations and safety, quality and efficiency of healthcare system. This paper descried the background, definition and characteristics of population medicine, discussed relationship between population medicine and population health and evidence-based medicine. It also introduced Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School as a world-class model in the field of population medicine, discussed the needs and potential strategies for developing population medicine research in China, and briefly outlined the current development of population medicine in China.
Rare diseases have problems with low number of cases, low social awareness, and long time of diagnosis. “Targeted doctor” is the first step to help rare disease patients start the correct path of diagnosis and treatment. This article introduces the design of a decision-making engine for patients with rare diseases by constructing a knowledge graph of rare diseases and experts, using an intelligent question-and-answer system, and combining big data and artificial intelligence methods. This engine can perform rare disease pre-screening based on patient portraits and other information, and recommend the best visiting route to patients, thereby improving the efficiency of rare disease patients’ medical service system and enhancing the decision-making ability of rare diseases.