Tsinghua University holds Tsinghua AI Agent Hospital Inauguration and 2025 Tsinghua Medicine Townhall Meeting

,,On the morning of April 26, Tsinghua University held an inauguration ceremony for Tsinghua AI Agent Hospital and the 2025 Tsinghua Medicine Townhall Meeting at the Main Building Reception Hall. Tsinghua President Li Luming and Vice President Wang Hongwei attended the event.

Meeting in progress

President Li Luming reviewed the progress of Tsinghua University’s medical programs over the past year, emphasizing the University’s strong commitment to the development of medical disciplines. He highlighted Tsinghua’s strength in fundamental research in Artificial intelligence, which has already led to a series of high-level innovations at the intersection of AI and medicine. The establishment of the Tsinghua AI Agent Hospital represents a new initiative by Tsinghua to leverage its strengths in science and engineering to empower the advancement of medicine.

President Li encouraged Tsinghua Medicine to remain committed to fostering virtue and talent, cultivating a new generation of medical innovators with both a strong medical foundation and AI literacy. He also called for deeper integration across disciplines, particularly between engineering and medicine, as well as closer ties between clinical practice and technology. Finally, he urged Tsinghua Medicine to align its work with cutting-edge global trends and national strategic needs, driving medical advancement and contributing to the protection of public health.

Unveiling Ceremony of Tsinghua AI Agent Hospital Hospital

During the ceremony, Li Luming, Wang Hongwei, Vice Provost and Senior Vice-Chancellor of Tsinghua Medicine Wong Tien Yin, Dean of the Institute for AI Industry Research (AIR) Zhang Ya-Qin, Executive Dean of AIR Liu Yang, and Director of the Department of General Practice and Health Medicine at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital Prof Wang Zhong jointly unveiled the Tsinghua AI Agent Hospital. Wong Tien Yin and Zhang Ya-Qin each delivered keynote speeches outlining the hospital’s strategy and future outlook.

The development of the Tsinghua AI Agent Hospital will proceed in phases. In the initial stage, the hospital system will be built leveraging the university’s comprehensive AI infrastructure and interdisciplinary strengths in engineering and medicine. It will undergo pilot operations at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital and the Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Internet Hospital, starting with departments such as General Practice, Ophthalmology, Radiological Diagnostics, and Respiratory Medicine.

Looking ahead, the hospital aims to create a closed-loop ecosystem of „AI + Healthcare + Education + Research,” enhancing the efficient expansion and equitable distribution of high-quality medical resources. The ultimate goal is to provide more people with affordable, sustainable, and high-quality medical services.

Wong Tien Yin noted that the AI Agent Hospital is designed to transcend the traditional „Hospital + AI” model. Accordingly, AI agent functions are embedded at the foundational design level, driven by clinical service needs. This approach will assist doctors in making precise decisions, improve healthcare efficiency and patient satisfaction, lower hospital operating costs, and help address the shortage of primary care physicians. In the long term, the hospital plans to operate as a physical AI-enabled hospital, promoting a revolutionary transformation of healthcare models. It will also serve as a key platform for medical education at Tsinghua, nurturing a new generation of „AI-collaborative physicians.”

Zhang Ya-Qin emphasized that Artificial Intelligence is a key driver of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and AI+Healthcare is a crucial interdisciplinary field with significant research and application value. In November 2024, Tsinghua launched the internal test version of the „Zijing AI Doctor,” a system based on a „closed-loop” medical virtual world that accelerates the evolution of AI doctors, laying a solid foundation for the research and application of intelligent agents in healthcare. Building on this core technology, the AI Agent Hospital will fully leverage Tsinghua’s interdisciplinary strengths to continuously pioneer new models of innovative healthcare.

The event also featured the launch ceremony for the Tsinghua University Academic Clinical Program (ACP). Wang Hongwei and Wong Tien Yin presented appointment letters to the first two ACP teams: Radiological Sciences ACP and General Practice ACP.

Prof Li Guoxin, Medical Director of Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, elaborated on the concept and framework of ACP.

The Tsinghua University Academic Clinical Program is committed to establishing a collaborative academic framework through interdisciplinary collaboration and integration of resources from Tsinghua affiliated hospitals, Tsinghua Medicine schools, and other schools of Tsinghua University, as well as international partners. By establishing a long-term interdisciplinary collaboration mechanism driven by clinical needs and following the „X + Medicine” model, the ACP seeks to foster open sharing and stronger synergy across clinical care, education, and research domains, thereby elevating the standard of academic medicine. In addition, it seeks to inject new momentum into discipline development and talent development to support the goals of the „Healthy China 2030” strategy.

Faculty and staff of Tsinghua Medicine participated in the meeting both online and offline.

From Tsinghua Medicine

Editors: Li Han, JP ”

Sources:

https://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/info/1245/14224.htm

https://air.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/

https://air.tsinghua.edu.cn/info/1007/2351.htm

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.02957v1

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202505/06/WS68195e8fa310a04af22bd960.html

https://medium.com/@seekmeai/china-unveils-worlds-first-ai-hospital-14-virtual-doctors-ready-to-treat-thousands-daily-3b7450ac6fd8

https://healthhq.world/issue-sections/country-reports/china/chinas-virtual-healthcare-project-to-go-public-in-2025/