AI pediatrician starts work at Beijing Children's Hospital

BEIJING -- The first case an artificial intelligence (AI) pediatrician received at Beijing Children's Hospital was an eight-year-old boy who for three weeks had been experiencing persistent tics, which are habitual spasmodic muscle contractions.

A skull base mass was discovered two weeks earlier, presenting 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 an in-depth discussion regarding this boy's condition. They concluded that further MRI evaluation was necessary and recommended expediting the completion of the required examinations.

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

This AI pediatrician, believed to be first of its kind in China, has been participating in multidisciplinary consultations for complex cases, pioneering a dual-doctor parallel model that combines an AI pediatrician with multidisciplinary human experts — achieving transformation of the diagnosis and treatment of challenging pediatric conditions.

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

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

Ni said after its launch on Jan 18 this year, the AI pediatrician underwent nearly a month of internal testing at the hospital, earning recognition from experts. It officially entered clinical application on Feb 13.

Wang Xiaochuan, founder and CEO of Baichuan AI, a technical collaboration partner, said the application of the AI pediatrician at Beijing Children's Hospital marks a significant milestone in the field of AI healthcare. This advancement will powerfully drive the popularization and accessibility of high-quality medical services.

Ni said the hospital will continue to deepen research, development and promotion of the pediatric health big model, aiming to comprehensively cover diverse scenarios such as 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.