Shi yu / China daily
International health systems are subject to increasing constraints, faced with challenges ranging from aging populations to the growing charge of chronic diseases and inadequate access to medical care. While each country is struggling with its own set of problems, there are common aspects that transcend borders: ineffectiveness, accessibility and cost. In China, of which almost a third of the population should be 60 or over by 2035, the challenge is particularly serious.
The good news is that AI -centered innovations already have an impact, from specialized test centers to advanced diagnostic systems implemented in hospitals. These advances highlight the potential of AI to transform public health systems. However, digital health and health tools will be as effective as the systems that support them.
The AI allows the health system of a country of zero in the most urgent problems, preventing the dispersion of resources through non -coordinated and unsuccessful efforts. This objective is particularly crucial for rural communities, low-income groups and people in quickly urbanized regions, which often suffer from under-strength health infrastructure and the perpetual challenge of infectious diseases. In such environments, health practitioners are constantly overwhelmed by systemic defects, which limits their ability to fully focus on patient care.
When something as fundamental as diagnosis becomes a challenge, the erroneous diagnostic rate in China, an average of 30%, AI’s intervention makes a significant difference. The remote diagnostic systems powered by AI in rural areas have already reduced an erroneous diagnosis of 63%, demonstrating the transformer potential of the AI.
The capacity tension, another major obstacle to the construction of resilient health systems in the world, finds comfort in the integration of AI. It is not uncommon for hospitals in high demand areas to be characterized by unsustainable ratios, such as 820,000 ambulatory annual visits with only 136 doctors in the cardiology department, as in the case of the Zhongshan hospital. AI solutions are integrated to diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease.
Even in the smallest local hospitals like that of Wuzhen, in the province of Zhejiang, the integration of AI helps to improve health results, having already served thousands of patients since its opening last year.
National initiatives such as the “AI Plus” program, which promotes standardized infrastructure and data sharing with regional efforts such as Shanghai strategy to stimulate AI in the development of drugs and clinical decision-making, China is at the forefront of a surge at several levels to make health care more equitable.
Likewise, the unified Brazil health system has integrated AI technologies to improve the diagnosis of diseases, personalized treatment plans and remote supervision of patients, highlighting the potential of AI to improve the provision of health care in various contexts.
Needless to say, such transformative technologies also require strong and reactive regulatory mechanisms that can balance the pace of progress with the need to protect individuals and communities from any potential damage. AI regulations, being an essential concern for decision -makers, technologists and health system leaders, requires concerted global efforts to ensure that these technologies do not exacerbate existing inequalities or leave vulnerable groups.
In addition, a responsible and inclusive health system focused on AI has the largest promise for under-aged and vulnerable populations, many of which live in fields where health gaps remain both a critical challenge and an opportunity for innovation.
In addition, cross -border collaboration allows different countries to pool resources, reduce the duplication of efforts and invest jointly in the research and development of AI, thus aligning efforts and accelerating progress. Working together supports standardized and interoperable systems while ensuring that no single player will have the financial and technical burden alone. By co-developing AI solutions, countries can design health care models that improve both efficiency and access, solving specific problems in the country with cross-border potential.
To ensure responsible use of AI in health care, it is essential to recognize that the impact of a single development or failure in a part of the world can have global reverberations. This makes robust mechanisms, such as the global early alert system for post-commerce surveillance developed by Healthai, it is all the more crucial to fight against potential adverse events.
In an encouraging way, China is already evolving in this direction. Its general regulatory landscape of AI took shape thanks to a process of developing dynamic policies which implies not only the State but also academics, intermediate levels and policy researchers. What is necessary now is to extend this momentum to health care, a sector where the issues are particularly high. Thus, the margin of error must be extremely thin.
The author is CEO of Healthai – the World Agency for a Health Manager and former member of the Portuguese Parliament.
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