Medical experts from different departments of Beijing Children's Hospital work on Feb 20 with an artificial intelligence model specializing in pediatrics. [Photo/China News Service]

Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in helping doctors make more accurate and efficient diagnoses, with new AI models tailored to pediatrics, rare diseases and specialized fields emerging in recent years, medical experts said.

However, they cautioned that AI cannot replace doctors, and ethical challenges must be addressed as its use expands.

Wang Zhiqun, head of the radiology department at Aerospace Center Hospital in Beijing, said that AI was first used to help interpret medical images at the hospital around 2018. Its accuracy and ability to speed up work have improved significantly over the years.

"With the help of AI, we radiologists can detect pulmonary nodules in less than 15 minutes on average," he said.

AI has also streamlined the interpretation of computed tomography angiograms for the coronary arteries, as well as the head and neck — scans used to check for cardiovascular diseases — allowing the department to diagnose 40 to 50 patients per day, up from around 10 previously, Wang noted.

"AI has played an instrumental role in helping doctors improve precision in reading images in order to estimate bone age in children — a task that used to be time-consuming and labor-intensive," Wang added.

Qiao Youlin, a researcher at the School of Population Medicine and Public Health at Peking Union Medical College, said that AI has great potential in expanding cervical cancer screening.

"We are developing AI-powered software that can help doctors pinpoint biopsy locations more accurately," he said.

Peking Union Medical College announced this month that an AI-powered platform aggregating rare disease information and genetic data from the Chinese population has been put into clinical use.

The model is aimed at assisting doctors in the diagnoses of rare diseases more accurately and rapidly while narrowing disparities in rare disease diagnosis nationwide, the hospital said.

Beijing Children's Hospital also announced earlier this month that it has implemented an AI-driven tool consolidating the expertise of more than 300 pediatricians and decades of medical records.

During a recent multidisciplinary consultation session for an 8-year-old boy with a complex skull base tumor, the AI-driven tool reached a conclusion nearly identical to the joint diagnosis of 13 specialists at the hospital.

Ni Xin, the hospital's president, said that plans are underway to roll out AI-powered pediatric platforms for families and communities in order to improve pediatric care at the grassroots level.

Wang, from Aerospace Center Hospital, stressed that AI cannot function independently and that doctors remain indispensable in the diagnostic process by integrating AI insights with their clinical expertise and comprehensive patient care.

Huo Honglei, head of the patient-doctor relationship coordination office at Beijing You'an Hospital, said the integration of AI into healthcare has sometimes led to patients using AI-generated results to challenge or blame doctors for discrepancies in diagnoses.

She emphasized the need to raise awareness about the irreplaceable role of doctors, ensure patients receive compassionate care during consultations, and strengthen regulations governing the use of AI in healthcare.