Fudan University Shanghai Medical College and Huawei Launch China's First Systematic Medical AI Course for Medical Students

With the explosive growth of machine learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years and its gradual penetration into various medical fields, medical AI has become a focal point for the future development of medicine. It plays a significant role in numerous areas, including medical image recognition, electronic health records, drug discovery, and omics data analysis. To enhance medical students’ understanding of the theories underlying medical AI and machine learning, and to provide them with a preliminary grasp of application scenarios and implementation methods, Professor Liu Yun from Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, in collaboration with Huawei, developed “Medical Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning” (course code: MED130347), the first systematic medical AI course in China specifically designed for medical students.

This 3-credit course comprises 44 hours of theoretical instruction and 16 hours of laboratory sessions, covering the application of artificial intelligence in three major biomedical scenarios: medical imaging data, omics data, and electronic health record (EHR) data. Delivered in an intensive format in July 2019, the course attracted over 120 undergraduate and graduate students from the Medical School and its affiliated hospitals. The teaching team included Professor Liu Yun from the School of Basic Medical Sciences; Zhang Zhifeng, Chief AI Architect at Huawei, along with his team members (Dang Xiaodi, Yao Kaiqiang, and Zhao Geng); and renowned professors from other domestic and international universities and research institutes, including Professor Wu Hao from Emory University (USA), Professor Han Jingdong from the CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, and Professor Xie Zhi from Sun Yat-sen University.

This innovative course is the fruit of the university-enterprise collaboration between Fudan University and Huawei Technologies. As one of the companies with the strongest R&D capabilities and innovation vitality in China and even worldwide, Huawei has made substantial investments and innovations in the field of artificial intelligence, including medical AI. Collaborating with Huawei to develop this course enables students to rapidly gain insights into the latest innovations and trends in both academia and industry. Beyond theoretical instruction, the course places greater emphasis on hands-on practice, applying learned methods to address real-world medical challenges. Therefore, this model of curriculum innovation through university-enterprise partnership will undoubtedly bring more new courses to Fudan University in the future.

Teaching artificial intelligence to medical students is highly significant yet fraught with challenges. Professor Liu Yun and the Huawei team devoted substantial effort to designing the curriculum, preparing lecture notes and handbooks, and developing laboratory experiments. Huawei also provided essential support to ensure the smooth implementation of the course.

For detailed course information, please visit: https://liulab.fudan.edu.cn/teaching.html