Students experience smart medicine at hospital camp

Digital and intelligent medicine is the highlight of this year's medical youth camp at Ruijin Hospital, with high school and university students given the opportunity to visit laboratories, surgery rooms, and doctors' offices.

The students were able to have a close-up look at the daily work of doctors and nurses, visit different departments, and experience some medical practices. Many expressed a strong interest in learning medicine or being a doctor in the future.

Students said they were thrilled to see how artificial intelligence, high-end medical equipment, genetic technology, and smart medicine could greatly boost medical development, speed up efficiency, and improve accuracy.

In the operation room, artificial intelligence is used to indicate the position of important blood vessels and simulate the excision scenario to give doctors' guidance to ensure the best outcome of surgery.

At the pathology department, they viewed cells under endoscopes under the guidance of doctors, who explained how AI has become an important tool.

"Usually, a pathological doctor should spend 20 minutes on a case, while AI is able to reduce the process to within 5 minutes by issuing a report automatically," said Dr Da Qian from Ruijin's pathology department. "We should judge reports on 300 patients each day, so the efficiency has greatly improved."

Ruijin's pathology department is considered as doctors supporting doctors, as clinical decisions are mainly made based on pathology results.

Ye Kezhe, a freshmen of Zhejiang University's School of Medicine, came from neighboring Hangzhou to Shanghai to participate in the medical youth camp.

"Both of my parents are doctors," Ye said. "So I wanted to be a doctor since my childhood. I learnt about the medical camp from the media and applied for it immediately. Since I am only in the first year of medical school, I haven't had much chance to be involved in many clinical practices. The experience in Ruijin today expanded my view and gave me much information. I want to be a surgeon, who should work close with pathologists. Today's experience in the pathology department is very helpful for me. The rapid growth of smart medicine further boosts my interest and confidence in the development of medicine.

"Medicine's future is intelligence, while our future is the future of medicine," he said.

Ruijin officials said the youth camp was a good chance for the hospital to promote youth education and was a very meaningful issue.

"We want to educate young people to cherish life and respect life after this special experience," said Dr Ning Guang, president of Ruijin Hospital.

"No matter what job they will do in the future, the medical camp has given them a lesson about the greatness and weakness of life. We also want them to see the charm of medicine and have a better understanding of medical professionals."