The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) recently received a donation of HK$30 million from Li Ka-shing to support the Faculty of Medicine (CU Medicine)’s wider application of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical teaching and research.

Together with the same amount of funding matched, CU Medicine will invest a total of HK$60 million to enhance the use of AI in medical education. The goal is to equip CU Medicine’s staff and students as the next generation of clinicians with the readiness to understand, apply and develop AI-powered tools in clinical practice, and get prepared for the ethical challenges associated with the application of medical AI tools.

CU Medicine will roll out an “AI in Medical Education” scheme. This includes the development of an in-house AI-powered chatbot prototype for teaching. Students are guided through clinical cases for multidisciplinary learning.  The chatbot allows students to have individualised learning journeys; and its involvement of audio-visual aid will better support the students’ learning.

Students will also be encouraged to participate in research projects or develop innovative AI applications to address healthcare challenges and learn to collaborate effectively with experts from different fields, such as computer scientists and engineers to develop and implement AI solutions in healthcare.

Also, CU Medicine will establish a digital lab to provide computing resources, AI-related software and tools, diverse and high-quality medical datasets (e.g., medical images and health records) for students to practise with and gain experience in working with healthcare data.