Shanghai children's hospital getting big AI boost

Nearly all parents have suffered through the endless waiting when they take their children to the hospital — waiting to see the doctor, waiting for test results, waiting for the doctor to check the results and give a prescription. But an AI-based solution Shanghai Children's Medical Center will put into use on June 1 will make things easier, thepaper.cn reported.

The AI, provided by YITU Healthcare and embedded in the hospital's official WeChat account, combines AI applications with the whole outpatient process, including registration and the initial diagnostic inquiry. This is estimated to cut 1.5 to 2 hours of hospital time.

Patients can go to the WeChat account on their mobile phone, type in or speak out their symptoms and get suggestions from the system which department and doctors with which to register. They can then do so through their mobile phone.

There is also an intelligent test service. If a patient chooses this service, the system will recommend necessary tests according to symptoms the patient has put in and send it to a doctor. After the doctor approves them online in real time, the system will assign tests automatically.

"This will reduce waiting times, because patients will have done necessary tests before they meet the doctor," said Zhao Liebin, deputy head of the medical center and an advisor for clinical application of AI to pediatrics.

"The inquiry is specific. If a symptom is hard to describe, such as 'what kind of rash is it', the AI system will display pictures for patients to choose from," according to YITU Healthcare.

The symptoms can be transferred to a patient's structured medical record for the doctor to verify and adjust.

YITU Healthcare started developing the AI system in 2016. It cooperated with Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center and accumulated millions of medical records. Researchers train the AI system to understand clinical data such as symptoms, medical history and test results to establish an intelligent analysis system.