• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

  • Opinion
  • Health IT
    • Behavioral Health
    • Care Coordination
    • EMR/EHR
    • Interoperability
    • Patient Engagement
    • Population Health Management
    • Revenue Cycle Management
    • Social Determinants of Health
  • Digital Health
    • AI
    • Blockchain
    • Precision Medicine
    • Telehealth
    • Wearables
  • Life Sciences
  • Investments
  • M&A
  • Value-based Care
    • Accountable Care (ACOs)
    • Medicare Advantage

Chinese Search Engine Launches AI-Powered Bot for Doctors & Patients

by Fred Pennic 10/11/2016 Leave a Comment

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Print

Chinese search engine Baidu Inc., today launched Melody the Medical Assistant, an AI-powered conversational bot that helps doctors gather information from patients about their medical conditions. Baidu Melody is designed to save doctors and patients time in online discussions and provide relevant, contextual information to doctors to assist with recommendations and treatment options. The announcement was made at a Baidu Health and AI Workshop held today in Beijing. Melody is available immediately to patients and participating doctors.

Melody incorporates advanced deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) technologies developed by Baidu. It integrates with Baidu Doctor, an app that Baidu launched in China in 2015. The Baidu Doctor app allows patients to ask doctors direct questions, book appointments online and search for healthcare-related information.

“Melody is designed to help both doctors and patients. By focusing on the medical-assistant vertical, we’ve built a conversational bot that can give highly-customized and situation-appropriate responses to a patient’s query. As Melody has more conversations, it will also learn and keep getting better. We are just seeing the start of a much larger, AI-driven industry-wide transformation of healthcare,” said Andrew Ng, chief scientist at Baidu.

Worldwide, the adoption of online communications between doctors and patients is growing. According to the World Health Organization, the world will face a shortfall of nearly 13 million health care professionals in the next two decades. In the U.S. alone, the Association of American Medical Colleges predicts that the U.S. will face a shortage of between 61,700 and 94,700 physicians by 2025.

How Baidu Melody Works

When a patient opens the Baidu Doctor app to pose a question, Melody automatically asks the patient additional context-relevant questions, to clarify information such as the duration, severity and frequency of symptoms. It can also ask about additional symptoms possibly related to their condition but not initially disclosed by the patient.

This provides the doctor with a more complete picture with which to make an informed decision (such as whether to recommend an immediate appointment). Melody can offer possible treatment options to the doctor, who can choose to use them in a response to the patient.

Melody uses deep learning to understand a patient’s initial query and select additional questions to send to the patient. It has access to extensive medical knowledge gleaned from medical textbooks, online articles and other publicly available information.

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Print

Tagged With: AI, AI in healthcare, Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence Companies, Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, Baidu, Chat Bots in Healthcare, Deep Learning, NLP, physicians

Tap Native

Get in-depth healthcare technology analysis and commentary delivered straight to your email weekly

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to HIT Consultant

Latest insightful articles delivered straight to your inbox weekly.

Submit a Tip or Pitch

Featured Interview

The AI Paradox in Healthcare: Notable CEO Shares Why Moving Too Slowly is a Greater Risk

Most-Read

Pfizer and Trump Administration Announce Landmark Agreement to Lower Drug Costs

Pfizer and Trump Administration Announce Landmark Agreement to Lower Drug Costs

KLAS Report: Epic's Native Ambient Speech Tool Reshapes Customer AI Strategies

KLAS Report: Epic’s Native Ambient Speech Tool Reshapes Customer AI Strategies

Epic Unveils MyChart Central and New APIs to Advance Interoperability at Open@Epic

Epic Outlines Roadmap for Next-Generation Data Sharing at Open@Epic

Epic Launches Comet: A New AI Platform to Predict Patient Health Journeys

Epic Launches Comet: A New AI Platform to Predict Patient Health Journeys

RevSpring to Acquire Kyruus Health, Creating a Unified Patient Experience

RevSpring to Acquire Kyruus Health, Creating a Unified Patient Experience

Oracle Confirms Layoffs in Kansas City

Oracle Confirms Layoffs in Kansas City

Philips Future Health Index 2025: AI and Digital Tech Can Help Solve Cardiac Care Crisis

Philips Future Health Index 2025: AI and Digital Tech Can Help Solve Cardiac Care Crisis

Optain Health Secures $26M to Advance AI-Powered Retinal Screening

Optain Health Secures $26M for AI-Powered Retinal Screening

Sutter Health and Epic Launch "Sutter Sync" to Optimize Remote Chronic Care

Sutter Health and Epic Launch “Sutter Sync” to Optimize Remote Chronic Care

Patient Square Capital Acquires Premier in $2.6B Deal

Secondary Sidebar

Footer

Company

  • About Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Reprints and Permissions
  • Submit An Op-Ed
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

Editorial Coverage

  • Opinion
  • Health IT
    • Care Coordination
    • EMR/EHR
    • Interoperability
    • Population Health Management
    • Revenue Cycle Management
  • Digital Health
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Blockchain Tech
    • Precision Medicine
    • Telehealth
    • Wearables
  • Startups
  • Value-Based Care
    • Accountable Care
    • Medicare Advantage

Connect

Subscribe to HIT Consultant Media

Latest insightful articles delivered straight to your inbox weekly

Copyright © 2025. HIT Consultant Media. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy |