Artificial intelligence making our hospitals smarter and more efficient
A patient walks under the guidance of AR navigation inside one building of Xinhua Hospital.
Leading public hospitals in Shanghai are using artificial intelligence on their WeChat to streamline patient registration and provide better treatment.
The Internet hospital service has been widely adopted by hospitals and patients since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020.
More patients are using online reservations, but many do not know which department they need to register for.
To help patients, Xinhua Hospital is using AI. Learning from outpatient data from the past three years, the system helps nurses and patients choose the right department.
When patients log onto the hospital's WeChat, they can choose "intelligent consultation" to list their symptoms and fill in personal information.
They are then linked to the department they need and given information about experts relevant to their issues.
The Shanghai Health Commission issued a guideline this year to boost digitalization for a more convenient medical experience for patients and clarified seven "intelligent hospital" applications such as intelligent guidance for online registration and intelligent in-hospital route directions.
Xinhua's WeChat also offers a pilot augmented reality supported navigation service. The service can quickly guide patients to go to the relevant areas.
With the combination of AI guidance and AR navigation, patients can shorten their stay at the hospital and streamline the whole process, said officials from the hospital, one of Shanghai's four top pediatric hospitals.
Smart technologies have been promoted to more hospitals to make medical processes more convenient, more patient-focused and more efficient.
Officials from the Shanghai General Hospital said AI has become an important part of the smart hospital.
For example, all tests that need an empty stomach are arranged on the same morning. Hospitalizations and surgeries are also scheduled using algorithms.
