Alibaba Group Holding’s research arm Damo Academy and Beijing United Family Hospital (BJU), the flagship facility of the private United Family Healthcare network in mainland China, have formed a strategic partnership to use AI in complicated cancer diagnosis and treatment.
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The collaboration will leverage Damo Academy’s medical artificial intelligence system, called “One Sweep Multi-Check”, as part of efforts to offer multi-disease AI screening services to the public, according to Monday’s statement from Hangzhou-based Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.
“We look forward to working with Damo Academy to drive the health management gateway for cancer and chronic diseases ever forward with cutting-edge AI screening technology,” BJU president Pan Zhongying said in the statement. She pointed out that the AI-based screening system would “provide more efficient, reliable and people-centred healthcare”.
The collaboration with BJU – a full-service, internationally accredited healthcare provider – showed how far Alibaba’s research arm has bolstered the credentials of its AI-powered cancer detection tools.
Damo Academy’s AI screening system, which can identify a variety of diseases through a single flat computed tomography (CT) scan, provides a quick and low-cost solution to the growing problem of cancer diagnoses. According to 2024 estimates from the World Health Organization, global cancer diagnoses are expected to top 35 million by 2050.
The academy’s strategic partnership with BJU would also be extended to detecting various chronic diseases, such as osteoporosis and severe fatty liver disease, to address the healthcare challenges of China’s ageing population.