(Yicai) March 27 -- Artificial intelligence is transforming the healthcare industry, but the risks associated with the technology need to be identified and mitigated, according to experts.

While errors made by AI in other industries may only result in financial losses, mistakes in healthcare can have severe consequences, Peter Lee, executive editor of Cell Press, said at the "AI + Health" application and governance sub-forum at the Boao Forum for Asia.

It is essential to clarify human responsibility when applying AI, said Fu Sheng, director of the Administration Bureau of Hainan Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone. AI may struggle to determine whether a 90-year-old patient with Alzheimer's disease should receive conservative or aggressive treatment, so it cannot replace humans in making medical decisions that involve human values and ethics, Fu stressed.

Doctors can integrate tech, experience, and compassion to make empathetic judgments, said Alex Ng, president of Tencent Health and head of Tencent Life Sciences Lab. AI should only play a supportive role as an assistant during the diagnosis and treatment process due to being unable to understand patients' emotions, social backgrounds, and life values, Ng added.

AI is still going to bring profound change to the healthcare industry, because the unknown aspects of human biology outweigh the known in healthcare, Ng noted. AI can assist the scientific community in better understanding human physiology, "positioning us in a renaissance of life sciences."

Tencent's AI cervical cancer screening tech, when applied in central and western Chinese grassroots medical institutions, has increased detection rates by two to three times, Ng said. In addition, the DeepGEM pathology model developed by the firm in collaboration with the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University has reduced the time for lung cancer gene mutation detection to just one minute from several weeks, Ng noted.

Faster diagnostic results not only speed up the process but also lower healthcare costs, Ng pointed out.

"Doctors need to understand how to use AI more effectively," said Daniel Ting, director of Singapore Medical Group's AI Office and chief data and digital officer at the Singapore National Eye Centre. Those who embrace AI are more productive than those who reject it, he stressed.

AI is greatly accelerating the transformation of the healthcare industry, changing the pathways for new drug development and enhancing efficiency, Fu noted. It can provide early diagnosis of diseases at the molecular and genetic levels, surpassing traditional doctors in image reading capabilities, while it can also offer personalized treatment plans for patients, Fu added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev