AI model treating children at Beijing hospital

After its launch on Jan 18 and nearly a month of internal testing, Beijing Children's Hospital's artificial intelligence model specializing in pediatrics faced the task of diagnosing and treating its first patient on Feb 13.

The first case involved an 8-year-old boy who for three weeks had been experiencing persistent ticks, which are habitual spasmodic muscle contractions.

A mass discovered at the base of the boy's skull two weeks earlier presented a complex medical condition for which diagnostic results across multiple hospitals had proved inconsistent.

Ni Xin, head of the hospital, along with 13 renowned experts from different departments, conducted in-depth discussions regarding the boy's condition. They concluded that further MRI evaluation was necessary and recommended expediting the completion of the required examinations.

Meanwhile, the pediatric AI model was also hard at work. After engineers input the patient's chief complaints and medical records into the model, it provided recommendations that closely aligned with those of the expert panel.

The specialist AI, believed to be the first of its kind in China, has been used in multidisciplinary consultations for complex cases, pioneering a dual-doctor parallel model that combines the AI with multidisciplinary human experts — potentially improving the diagnosis and treatment of challenging pediatric conditions.

According to Ni, the pediatric AI was developed by the hospital in collaboration with multiple technology companies, leveraging the hospital's pediatric medical big data model, its health medical innovation applications key laboratory and its validation platform.

The AI system integrates the clinical expertise of over 300 renowned pediatric specialists in the hospital, along with decades of high-quality medical record data from these experts. Through structured clinical reasoning paradigm training, it has established a comprehensive knowledge system covering both common and complex pediatric diseases.

Wang Xiaochuan, founder and CEO of Baichuan AI, a technical collaboration partner, said the application of the AI model at Beijing Children's Hospital marks a significant milestone in the field of AI healthcare.

"This advancement will significantly increase the popularization and accessibility of high-quality medical services," he said.

Ni said the hospital will continue to deepen research, development and promotion of its big data pediatric health model, aiming to comprehensively cover diverse scenarios for primary medical institutions and family health management.

Through technological empowerment, all 300 million children across the country can hopefully access high-quality medical services, Ni added.

Xinhua