Tsinghua University-incubated start-up to widen test of virtual hospital with ‘AI doctors’

The Agent Hospital developed by Tairex, formed under Tsinghua’s Institute for Al Industry Research, will conduct public tests next year

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The virtual Agent Hospital features 42 AI doctors covering 21 departments that include emergency, respiratory, paediatrics and cardiology. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 8:00pm, 2 Dec 2024Updated: 9:37pm, 2 Dec 2024

A Chinese start-up incubated at the prestigious Tsinghua University has started internal tests of its virtual hospital platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI), as the country extends the technology’s application to the medical sector.

The platform developed by Tairex, a company set up in September under the university’s Institute for Al Industry Research (AIR), features 42 AI doctors covering 21 departments that include emergency, respiratory, paediatrics and cardiology, according to an AIR blog post published last month.

Public tests of the platform, named Agent Hospital, will be conducted in the first quarter of 2025, with the goal of making the system available to the general public later in the first half of next year, according to the institute.

Based in Wuxi, a city in eastern Jiangsu province, Tairex has created more than 500,000 AI patients from different regions, age groups and illnesses for its virtual hospital platform, according to its website. It encourages the public to visit the platform and invites medical professionals to test the system as patients.

Students seen outside the Library Building of Tsinghua University in Beijing. Photo: Shutterstock

The Tairex platform reflects how China’s adoption of AI in healthcare and other sectors enables the country to narrow the technological gap with the United States, thanks to the mainland’s massive market, abundant data resources and growing industrial base.

China’s AI industry could also pour more than 10 trillion yuan (US$1.4 trillion) into developing the technology in the next six years, according to Chen Liang, chairman of the state-backed investment vehicle China International Capital Corp.