BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Within seconds, an AI-powered "smart brain" at the West China Hospital of Stomatology can diagnose over 30 common dental diseases. It even generates "visualized" diagnostic charts to help patients better understand their conditions.
Industry insiders believe that technology is helping narrow the information gap between doctors and patients.
"We used to spend a lot of time explaining complex medical terms that patients often struggled to grasp. Now, AI helps patients understand their conditions more intuitively," said Wang Chenglin, a dentist at the hospital.
At the hospital, a clinical-grade large model for oral pathology serves as a "cloud mentor" for junior doctors, enabling early detection and treatment with an accuracy of 80 to 90 percent.
The hospital's AI practice reflects a broader trend across China. From interpreting medical images to assisting clinical decisions and even predicting disease risks, AI is reshaping how doctors work and how patients receive care.
This progress has been supported by China's national drive to boost AI-powered healthcare. In 2025, China's National Health Commission and other relevant departments issued a set of guidelines to promote the use of AI tools to improve the quality of the country's healthcare services.
China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) calls for the orderly application of digital and intelligent technologies in areas such as assisted diagnosis, precision medicine, health management, medical insurance services and elderly care.
As of May 1, 2025, the country had released approximately 300 medical large models, and county-level remote medical imaging services had handled more than 68 million cases, making AI an increasingly important tool for grassroots healthcare.
Despite promising prospects, the healthy and standardized development of medical AI still faces challenges, including limited access to high-quality medical data and the risk of misdiagnosis.
"General models are not adept at understanding clinical thinking, nor can they adapt to personalized diagnosis," said Zhang Hongying, director of the Department of Oral Pathology at the West China Hospital of Stomatology.
To bridge the data gap, doctors and researchers call for stronger collaboration between the medical community and the tech industry to build standardized, high-quality datasets covering imaging, pathology, and biochemical tests.
Echoing the trend, tech giant Alibaba last week unveiled a medical AI assistant in Hangzhou, the capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. The company also announced an exclusive content partnership with BMJ Group, a leading medical knowledge provider.
Under the partnership, Alibaba's AI model has obtained exclusive licenses for content and multimedia resources published in BMJ's 70 journals over the past decade. It aims to address long-standing challenges, including fragmented medical literature, language barriers and AI hallucinations in general models.
Experts also emphasize the importance of establishing Chinese standards in the field.
"We are determined and capable of creating a medical AI standard that belongs to China, serves China, and contributes Chinese wisdom and solutions to global medical AI governance," said Xiao Ruiping, former dean of the College of Future Technology at Peking University. ■
