Philips is expected to sign a medical research partnership agreement today with one of China's biggest hospitals, a first for multinational companies in the country.

The Dutch group, which is the world number three in medical imaging equipment, is set to form a partnership with the West China Hospital in Sichuan province, which, with 4,300 beds and 2m outpatients, is the largest single-building hospital in China and one of the largest in the world. The state-owned West China Hospital, an affiliate of Sichuan University, is also one of the oldest hospitals in China.

The partnership covers eight projects and will last for seven years. Its aim is to help doctors interpret medical imagery and diagnose illnesses at an earlier stage by developing an information system and devising faster procedures. Philips hopes to later sell the information system to other hospitals around the world. The projects will focus on diagnosing illnesses such as heart disease and stroke, and finding biological indicators of mental illnesses.

“What is important is the work flow, not the imaging.” Rick Harwig, Philips' chief technology officer, told the Financial Times. “You need to develop the algorithms to extract the information from the data.”

Philips, which has operated research facilities in Shanghai since 2000, now conducts 10 per cent of its research in China.

Some $7.5bn of medical equipment was sold in China in 2006, according to the US Department of Commerce.