AI Case Study
Guangzhou Second Provincial Central Hospital provides initial consultations with conversational robots that can diagnose 200 diseases with 90% accuracy
There is a major shortage of doctors in China. Guangzhou Second Provincial Central Hospital provides initial consultation with conversational robots powered by WeChat owned by tech powerhouse Tencent. Trained on over 100,000 of their hospital medical records and over 300m anonymised national patient records they claim the conversational chatbot can diagnose 200 diseases with 90% accuracy. The robot also sets up new patient files through facial recognition linked to China's national public security system.
Industry
Healthcare
Healthcare Providers And Services
Project Overview
"Using WeChat, the chat app owned by Tencent, users can get a pre-diagnosis through the hospital’s public account. An “intelligent doctor” will ask the patient a series of questions, similar to a self-diagnosis attempt on WebMD. The program will then make a recommendation based on the user’s answers."
To build the database, the hospital said it spent nearly two years to study more than 100,000 of its digital medical records spanning 12 years. The hospital also trained the AI tool using data from over 300 million medical records dating back to the 1990s from other hospitals in China.
To build the database, the hospital said it spent nearly two years to study more than 100,000 of its digital medical records spanning 12 years. The hospital also trained the AI tool using data from over 300 million medical records (link in Chinese) dating back to the 1990s from other hospitals in China. The tool has an accuracy rate of over 90% for diagnoses for more than 200 diseases, it said.
"The hospital also uses facial recognition to create files for first-time patients. After recording a short video, the system will match an image extracted from the video to one that is stored in China’s national public security system."
The AI doctor's intelligent consultation is open to the public and free of charge.
Reported Results
"The tool has an accuracy rate of over 90% for diagnoses for more than 200 diseases."
"In one case, a 23-year-old woman, surnamed Zeng was asked 24 queries (link in Chinese), according to a local media report. Zeng thought her long-time abdomen pain was related to her digestive system, but the AI tool told her to see a gynaecologist."
Technology
Deep neural networking learning on medical records.
"The hospital also uses facial recognition to create files for first-time patients."
Function
Operations
General Operations
Background
"In China, going to the hospital typically means that one could spend hours queuing for a consultation that lasts for just minutes. Now, a hospital in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou is looking to relieve the problem with artificial intelligence.
China hopes that robots can go some way in fixing the severe problem of doctor shortages. China has 2.3 physicians for every 1,000 people as of 2016, compared with Switzerland’s 4.25 and the UK’s 2.83, while its rapidly ageing population is only adding more pressure to the health care system. Chinese tech titan Tencent and one of the country’s leading voice-recognition firms, iFlytek, are among the companies working with the Guangzhou hospital."
Benefits
Data
"To build the database, the hospital said it spent nearly two years to study more than 100,000 of its digital medical records spanning 12 years. The hospital also trained the AI tool using data from over 300 million medical records dating back to the 1990s from other hospitals in China."