Optical chips are the infrastructure and core support of the new generation of information industry in the future. This paper focused on the field of optical chips, using the method of "direction - positioning - path", clarified the foundation and conditions for the development of optical chips through the analysis of industrial environment, industrial status, patent situation and layout. The paper grasped the forward-looking layout of future technology and industrialization based on research and expert consultation, and identified the future development direction. On this basis, the paper analyzed the opportunities, risks and challenges in the development of optical chips in China, and put forward corresponding suggestions for intellectual property development: (1) Echelon layout planning for future industrial development, in the hot fields such as high-speed optical chips, automotive lidar chip, silicon optoelectronic chip and VCSEL laser chip, we need strengthen and complement chain, break through key technologies. In the prospective application fields such as optical computing, optical quantum, we need actively guide industrial layout. (2) Build an intellectual property service platform of optical chips industry which cover the whole cycle of the innovation chain. (3) Strengthen the overseas patent layout in the field of optical chips. (4) Guide optical chips innovation entities to build multidimensional intellectual property protection strategies.

At present, photonic technology is becoming a new development trend, and the photonic industry is expected to become a new driving force and main battlefield for global economic growth in the future. Major countries/regions in the world are vigorously developing optoelectronic technology, and regard the optoelectronic industry as one of the sunrise industries to promote economic development and social progress. This paper first analyzes the typical practices and empirical characteristics of United States, Japan and Europe in promoting photonic technology and industrial development, and analyzes the current situation of photonic technology and industrial development in China. Finally, the countermeasures and suggestions for the development of photonics industry in China are put forward: 1) strengthen the top-level design and take photonic technology and industrial development as a strategic focus; 2) Organize the establishment of a national photonic technology innovation platform to accelerate technology research and diffusion; 3) Coordinate the regional layout to achieve high-level agglomeration of the photonics industry; 4) Promote the integration of industry, education and research led by enterprises, and promote the integration and interconnection of science and technology and industry; 5) Driven by major application scenarios, build a demand-oriented industrial ecosystem.

Currently, brain-inspired models, represented by artificial neural networks, are primarily implemented at the software level. Although these models have achieved significant breakthroughs in terms of intelligence, their development is still constrained by the physical limitations of electronic chips. With the advancement of optical computing technology, photonic chips based on analog optical computing can directly construct physical neuromorphic computing units at the hardware level, enabling efficient intelligent processing and adaptive learning. This paper first provides an overview of recent research progress on photonic chips in the fields of digital optical computing and optical quantum computing, highlighting that developing brain-inspired photonic chips based on analog optical computing can circumvent the issue associated with logic gate design and simulate the computational advantages of the brain. By reviewing the evolution of artificial neural networks and the corresponding optical implementation technologies, this paper further presents the following viewpoints regarding the bottlenecks in existing brain-inspired photonic chips, specifically in nonlinear components and scalability. In terms of hardware implementation, it is necessary to further explore nonlinear optical components and construct all-optical nonlinear operation layers to simulate the nonlinear characteristics of the brain. In terms of algorithm implementation, it is crucial to study the memory-based learning and cognitive principles of the brain to design brain-inspired intelligent algorithms that match photonic characteristics, thereby overcoming scalability limitations.

Silicon photonics integration combines the advantages of high optoelectronic rate, low crosstalk, high integration of microelectronics and low cost, which is an important path to break through the bottlenecks of current microelectronic chip performance wall and power consumption wall and realize high-speed information transmission and processing. After more than 20 years of rapid development, optical waveguides, optical modulators, optical detectors, wavesplitter/combiners and other components for silicon photonic chips and their small-scale integration have been basically matured, but high-performance silicon-based light sources have not yet been completely solved. Due to the extremely low luminous efficiency of intrinsic silicon, how to integrate III-V lasers into silicon photonic chips and realize their low-loss coupling with on-chip waveguides is the core problem that needs to be solved urgently. Quantum dot materials have a strong restriction on the three-dimensional direction of the carriers, which makes quantum dot lasers exhibit excellent characteristics such as low power consumption, high operating temperature, high temperature stability, and strong anti-feedback, and are regarded as the mainstream of silicon-based light sources in the future. In this paper, we focus on two types of quantum dot laser schemes, on-chip bonding and heterogeneous integration, as well as three waveguide coupling schemes, photonic lead, end-plane coupling and evanescent wave coupling, for large-scale and high-density silicon photonics integration, in order to provide inspiration for the early completion of the "last piece of the puzzle" in silicon photonics integration of high-performance laser light sources.

Optical quantum chips based on coupled waveguide systems achieve quantum functionality through photon transport and inter-waveguide coupling, offering strong scalability and serving as a vital platform for optical quantum information processing. Three-dimensional optical quantum chips fabricated by femtosecond laser direct writing possess more flexible 3D configurations compared to traditional planar chips to bring forth enhanced functions including optical communication, quantum computing, all-optical logic operations, and on-chip information processing. Moreover, the propagation equation of light in coupled waveguide systems closely resembles the Schrödinger equation that governs the dynamics of microscopic particles. This similarity enables the use of optical quantum chips to simulate complex condensed matter quantum phenomena that are challenging to observe directly. Consequently, optical quantum chips not only have diverse applications but also serve as a powerful platform for studying cutting-edge physics concepts like topological physics and non-Hermitian effects. Currently, three-dimensional optical quantum chips, with their unique technological advantages and extensive application prospects, have become one of the key directions for future chip development. They open new avenues for maintaining global technological leadership, significantly bolstering China's prominence in advanced technology sectors.

This paper expounds the progress and breakthroughs of digital biology and digital medicine on the basis of combing the development process of “molecular medicine-systems medicine-digital medicine”, profiles strategic deployment of international digital medicine and the construction of representative smart hospitals, and focuses on the role of emerging information technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data in promoting major progress in the medical field. For example, protein structure prediction, human missense mutation discovery, the promotion of the research and development of organoids and organ-on-chips, enhancing cancer tumor diagnosis and clinical surgery, promoting the development of traditional Chinese medicine. This paper discusses and looks forward to the challenges and development prospects of digital medicine, and puts forward suggestions for the development of this field in China: 1) give full play to the key role of interdisciplinary science and emerging information technology, and promote the integration of cutting-edge technology and health field; 2) pay attention to data supervision to ensure the standardized development of digital biology and digital medicine; 3) promote data standardization and database construction to promote the development of digital therapeutics; 4) strengthen the cultivation of compound talents in the field of digital medicine, and pay attention to the complementary role of multiple education methods in talent training; 5) promote the development of the digital medical industry and promote the clinical implementation of digital medicine.

Today's society is entering the era of information big data, and scientific research such as artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction has become a research hotspot in the field of information technology innovation. Among them, brain-computer interface technology is the focus of interdisciplinary research in medicine, science and engineering. In order to comprehensively explore the technological development of global BCI in the medical field, this study carried out patent analysis of BCI in the medical field based on PatSnap patent database analysis platform. Based on the patent data, the relevant patent documents of brain-computer interface applications in the medical field from 2003 to 2023 are mined, and the application trend, application region, technical field and main applicants are visually analyzed. The results show that brain-computer interface has gone from scientific theoretical research to the stage of technological explosion; The United States has the largest number of patent applications for brain-computer interfaces in the medical field, and China still needs to enhance the research and development and innovation capabilities of core technologies in this field. A large number of companies around the world have increased their investment in technology research and development in the field of brain-computer interface, and universities and scientific research institutions have also actively carried out research and application of key technologies. However, issues such as ethics and safety, high research and development costs, have a certain impact on the development trend of patents. By systematically analyzing the patent information of global BCI technology in the medical field, this paper reveals key information such as its technological development trend, core technology layout, industry leaders and competitive situation in the medical field, providing reference for solving the problems to be faced in the development and application of BCI technology. New programs have been contributed to the promotion of key technology innovation and the development of high-quality talent training strategies.

Artificial intelligence and data-driven EHR mining can discover potential medical laws and knowledge, and provide high-value intelligence and technical method support for precise and personalised medical decision-making and health management. In this paper, we retrieve relevant EHR mining literature from Web of Science, PubMed, and CNKI databases, and analyse the hotspots and trends of research in the field by visualising the trend of publication and keyword co-occurrence. On the basis of a full understanding of EHR data types and database sources, the existing EHR mining technology methods in the scientific community and their advantages and disadvantages are summarised and compared and analysed. The current EHR mining techniques can be divided into four types: association rule-based, dictionary and rule combination, statistical machine learning, and deep learning. Among them, deep learning-based EHR data mining technology is the current research hotspot and trend, which can efficiently mine and predict large-scale complex and heterogeneous EHR data. The overall research still exists problems such as poor interpretability of mining results, single and insufficient integration of technical methods, low degree of intelligence and poor portability, poor representation learning ability of multimodal heterogeneous data, and difficulties in landing practical applications in the medical field. Future research should focus on the interpretability of EHR mining results, strong representation of multimodal heterogeneous data, integration and standardisation of EHR data, and landability in clinical medical practice. In addition, with the rapid development of technologies related to large language models and knowledge graphs, explore the feasibility of their practical application in the field of EHR mining.

To understand the interdisciplinary development trends in biomedical research across representative countries globally, this study focuses on the research outcomes of grants from exemplary funding institutions. Utilizing bibliometric indicators to measure the degree of interdisciplinary collaboration, a social network of disciplines is constructed to identify key and crucial supporting disciplines. The study reveals that from 2018 to 2022, the degree of interdisciplinary collaboration in biomedical research has gradually increased in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, European Union countries, and China. The number and scope of involved disciplines have expanded, though the intensity of the supporting role varies significantly among different disciplines. The increasing prominence of computer science including information technology, coupled with the ongoing crucial role of mathematics, particularly represented by statistics, along with the emergence of new materials, technologies, and equipment in the field of chemistry, collectively provide vital support for biomedical research. There are differences in the emphasis and supporting disciplines involved in research across different countries. Future planning of biomedical research grants and talent cultivation should pay more attention to the synergy of interdisciplinary knowledge and the integration of knowledge beyond the biomedical scope. To better support the innovation and development of the biomedical research paradigm, further exploration on deep collaboration models among researchers from different disciplines, interdisciplinary discipline setting in biomedical field, interdisciplinary training models for talent at different education stages, the arrangement of non-medical general supporting discipline courses, and scientifically optimize the content of medical teaching materials should be conducted.

Neurodegenerative diseases are a growing public health challenge worldwide, and providing a scientific basis for the allocation of research fundings for them is important for promoting research in the fields. Based on funding data, this paper reveals the trend of funding intensity, important research organizations and their major domains, and effectively identifies the potential and funding intensity of each research topic in the field of neurodegenerative diseases by calculating the trend factor of the topic terms. Funding amounts for neurodegenerative diseases decreases after 2019, and at a significant rate. However, funding amount of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has increased significantly. From a regional perspective, it can be seen that the United States has the most research funding, with a large gap between the other countries. The key funding projects of the top organizations focus on the construction of disease research (data) platforms. The emerging topics focus on the exploration of disease mechanisms, innovative therapies and diagnostics. In this regard, this paper puts forward four suggestions: 1) maintain the hierarchy of research in the field of neurodegenerative diseases; 2) the frontier exploration related funding may tend to funding projects that look for potential new targets or new therapies or early interventions; 3) properly deal with clinical research management and regulation; and 4) establish institutional mechanisms that are adapted to tackling neurodegenerative diseases.