Recently, according to CCTV News, an innovative team from Tsinghua University's Institute of Intelligence Industry Research (AIR) is rigorously beta testing the nation's first "AI Hospital"—Agent Hospital. The hospital is scheduled to officially launch by the end of this year and plans to open to the public in the first half of next year.
This May, AIR's smart healthcare team garnered significant international academic attention with their paper titled "Agent Hospital: A Simulated Hospital Environment Featuring Evolvable Medical Agents," which explores the use of artificial intelligence to simulate hospital operations. Following this, in September, AIR incubated Wuxi Zijin Zhikang Technology Co., Ltd., which took on the responsibility of transitioning Agent Hospital from theory to practice, aiming to deliver cost-effective, efficient, and high-quality medical services through AI technology.
According to relevant officials, Agent Hospital employs advanced AI technologies to closely replicate the facilities and service processes of real hospitals. Currently, this "AI Hospital" has developed 42 AI doctors across 21 departments, including pediatrics and otolaryngology, capable of handling over 300 common diseases. This innovative approach not only significantly expands the reach of medical services but also provides AI doctors with opportunities for rapid development.
In the real world, training an exceptional specialist typically requires accumulating thousands of cases and at least 5-10 years of clinical experience. However, within Agent Hospital's virtual environment, AI doctors can achieve substantial growth in a short period by learning from numerous simulated cases. A spokesperson stated, "We anticipate that AI doctors will continuously evolve in the future, ultimately integrating into real medical settings to assist human doctors with more tasks. This represents a significant breakthrough in smart healthcare and the future direction of medical services."
Agent Hospital is not the only AI hospital in the country. In August this year, Shanghai Weiyi AI Hospital was the first to offer similar services. Additionally, Shanghai Eastern Hospital has introduced an AI medical model developed entirely by a team of doctors, which, after "learning" from over six thousand domestic and international medical textbooks, is already operational in emergency departments, intensive care units, and inpatient wards.
