Advances in the application of artificial intelligence in clinical medicine

SHEN Weixi; ZHANG Jian

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-3806.2026.01.01

Abstract：Artificial intelligence(AI),as the core technology leading a new round of scientific and technological revolution,has been deeply integrated into every aspect of clinical medicine.Since its inception in the 1950s,AI has experienced a great-leap-forward development from symbolic logic to deep neural network.At present,it has shown broad application prospects in disease diagnosis,formulation of treatment plan,drug research and development,and hospital management.Regarding international regulation,the US Food and Drug Administration(FDA)has established and continuously updated the AI-Enabled Medical Device List,and applied a risk-based,total product life-cycle regulatory framework to the related softwares and medical devices.In China,the government is actively promoting the"AI+Healthcare"initiative to facilitate the clinical transformation of new technologies.Meanwhile,regulatory authorities are also simultaneously strengthening institutional building.They are gradually improving regulatory requirements in areas such as medical device registration review,risk management of AI medical software,data security and privacy protection,and establishing a regulatory system covering technology access,application implementation and risk prevention and control to provide institutional support for the standardized implementation of AI technology in clinical practice.Under the joint impetus of the above-mentioned international and domestic regulatory frameworks,AI technology is gradually being applied to clinical diagnosis and treatment as well as public health management,demonstrating significant application prospects in enhancing the capacity of primary medical services,early screening of tumors,and epidemiological management.This paper reviews the latest application progress of AI in clinical medicine,covering technical foundations such as computer vision and natural language processing.It systematically analyzes the challenges AI faces in practical applications,including data privacy,algorithmic transparency,and definition of legal liability.It also emphasizes that the application of AI in medical care should adhere to the principles of"people-oriented"and"human-led",and the sustainable development of precision medicine should be promoted through multi-center validation and collaborative supervision.