Artificial intelligence is saving doctors in central China's Wuhan City a lot of time by doing tedious routine work, enabling them to focus on delivering more compassionate, accurate, and efficient care to their patients.
At the Central Hospital of Wuhan, AI assistants have been integrated into nearly 20 clinical scenarios, from reading pathology slides and writing medical records to guiding surgeons inside the operating room.
Tao Zhaowu, chief physician of the department of respiratory and critical care medicine at the hospital, said the AI program installed on his clinic computer can automatically generate medical records based on conversations between the doctor and the patient.
"Typing medical records used to take a lot of time. With AI's help, now I have more time to communicate with patients, more time to think about and assess their conditions, and then carefully develop more personalized treatment plans for them," Tao said.
At this smart hospital, pathology samples have been fully digitized. AI screens them first, identifying high-risk areas and generating preliminary assessments within seconds. This provides doctors with clear, focused views, enabling faster decision-makings.
Zhang Hongfeng, a director of the pathology department, said AI has increased their reading efficiency by 20 to 30 percent while helping prevent missed diagnoses.
"Before the deployment of AI in examinations of biopsy samples, patients had to take their biopsy samples from local hospitals to our hospital, wait for us to examine the samples with a microscope and write the report, and then take the report back to the local hospitals," Zhang said.
In the operating room, AI is giving surgeons capabilities they never had before. AI-powered 3D reconstruction technology generates digital maps of the patient's body. It gives surgeons what feels like X-ray vision, allowing them to precisely remove deep nodules.
"Before surgery, we use 3D reconstruction technology to transform 2D CT scans into 3D digital models. It's essentially a 'digital lung' -- a complete simulation of the patient's actual lung tissue," said Guo Jialong, a director of the department of thoracic surgery.
For hospital president Cai Wei, all of this is part of a much larger vision. The hospital is building a smart information ecosystem, creating a closed loop of intelligent care that extends from home to hospital and back again.
"After patients come to our hospital, the information management system helps arrange their tests efficiently and matches them quickly with the right specialists," Cai said.
AI improves healthcare for Wuhan hospital
