China sets up first medical large model application testing center in Shanghai

SHANGHAI -- China has established its first application testing and verification center for medical large models in Shanghai, aimed at advancing the integration of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector.

The center was inaugurated on Friday by the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence (AI) Laboratory, which leads the initiative to bridge the gap between training, evaluation, and application of medical large models.

Twelve leading healthcare institutions in Shanghai will serve as the center's first validation units.

Medical large models are currently being explored for their potential in disease prediction, diagnostic assistance, personalized treatment, and drug discovery in China, although challenges such as accuracy, interpretability, data privacy, and medical ethics persist.

The center supports a comprehensive evaluation process, which includes qualifications verification, model review, safety assessment, medical scenario evaluation, product ethics review, and application tracking.

Through a thorough review mechanism and professional scenario validation design, it conducts real assessments of medical large model applications.

"In the future, this center will be used to evaluate various artificial intelligence applications in Shanghai's healthcare system, ensuring safe, compliant, and efficient service, while providing technical support for the intelligent development of healthcare," said Zhou Bowen, director and chief scientist of the Shanghai AI Laboratory.

Along with the launch of the center, the Shanghai medical large model collaborative innovation and application alliance was also established, which focuses on the innovative application and development of medical large models and exploring new forms of healthcare AI delivery.

In addition, other initiatives were announced on Friday including a health industry corpus, a medical large model, and the first batch of large model medical demonstration application projects.

The medical large model, known as "Shanghai medical intelligent assistant" is the first industry-level, integrated medical basic model in Shanghai. It encompasses various capabilities in healthcare service management, grassroots public health services, health industry development, and medical education and research.