Ant Group has upgraded its physician platform Haodf for Doctor into an artificial intelligence-powered service called AQ for Doctor, expanding its push into healthcare technology and opening the platform to hospitals and healthcare institutions across China.
The platform is designed to assist doctors with online consultations, patient management, clinical decision-making and medical research. It is integrated with Ant Group’s consumer-facing AQ health app, which had more than 100 million users as of August, the company said.
“AI will never replace doctors,” said Zhang Junjie, vice president of Ant Group and head of its health business. He said the company aims to develop an AI workstation that can help China’s more than five million physicians work more efficiently.
The move is the latest example of Chinese technology companies seeking to deploy generative AI in healthcare, where tools are increasingly being developed to handle administrative work, provide clinical information and connect patients with medical professionals.
Ant said AQ for Doctor has already connected more than 300,000 verified physicians. The platform includes an AI Medical Assistant and an AI Doctor Agent, which can conduct pre-visit interviews, respond to routine health questions and assist with post-treatment follow-ups.
The AI agent can gather patient information and organise medical histories before appointments. Following consultations, it can answer routine questions, generate follow-up summaries and synchronise the information with patients’ health records.
The upgrade also allows hospitals and other healthcare institutions to establish and operate their own online hospitals through AQ for Doctor. Previously, online consultations through the platform were limited to physicians affiliated with Haodf’s online hospital.
Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center is the first hospital to join under the new arrangement, Ant said.
Ant is also linking the platform with external medical information providers. AQ for Doctor has entered a strategic partnership with Wolters Kluwer to combine the company’s medical content and journals with Ant’s AI capabilities. The companies are also exploring further collaboration involving Wolters Kluwer’s UpToDate clinical decision-support service.
Ant Health has separately partnered with AI-for-science company DP Technology to provide medical scientific data through its Science Navigator platform.
AQ for Doctor currently provides access to more than 60 million medical publications, clinical guidelines and medical journals, as well as more than 140,000 drug labels, according to Ant.
Ant’s AQ consumer app has also been testing an “AI response + doctor review” model, under which AI-generated health guidance can be checked by physicians when users request professional confirmation. Initially introduced in dermatology, the service has expanded to 16 medical specialties.
Ant Group, which operates China’s Alipay platform, has been expanding the use of AI and other digital technologies across its businesses.
Business News Asia
