The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is harnessing artificial intelligence and robotics in healthcare to drive medical innovation, enhancing the quality healthcare services in city and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. 

PolyU officials and researchers on Monday presented four key research projects and inventions that are contributing to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s development into an international health and medical innovation hub.

They include research for an AI-assisted radiotherapy support system for the treatment of lung cancer patients, an AI-assisted non-invasive angiography for the early detection of eye diseases for diabetic patients, a robot that helps in the rehabilitation of stroke survivors, and an ultrafine high-sensitivity optical fibre sensor to enhance the precision of cochlear implantation surgery for those with hearing difficulties.

“PolyU adheres to a patient-centered approach, leveraging our strengths in medicine-engineering integration and AI-driven healthcare to advance medical innovation and knowledge transfer,” said Christopher Chao, PolyU vice-president for research and innovation.

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“With our world-renowned researchers, state-of-the-art research facilities, and extensive experience in medical education – particularly in training allied healthcare professionals – PolyU is confident in its ability to establish Hong Kong’s third medical school.”

PolyU encourages interdisciplinary research that combines healthcare with AI, engineering, and data science. The newly-established PolyU Academy for AI empowers researchers to conduct research that integrates medicine and engineering.

This initiative accelerates the deep integration of AI across key fields, including drug discovery, mental health, medical imaging, radiotherapy, Chinese medicine, biomedical engineering and cell immunotherapy.

Lung cancer treatment

A team led by Cai Jing, head of the PolyU Department of Health Technology and Informatics, developed the AI-assisted lung radiotherapy support system that can automatically analyze patients’ CT scan images and create lung ventilation and perfusion maps without the need for contrast agents.

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This method avoids high-functioning lung areas and reduces radiation damage to the patient’s lungs, improving post-operative quality of life.

The team collected CT scan images from over a hundred lung cancer patients to train the AI model and employed cutting-edge image processing algorithms to ensure high accuracy and consistency.

This innovation won a Silver Medal at the 50th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva.

Diagnosing eye diseases

Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of blindness globally. The traditional diagnostic approach relies on fluorescein angiography, which is invasive, expensive and causes patient discomfort, putting constraints on primary healthcare screening capacity.

A team led by He Mingguang, director of the PolyU-Wuhan Technology and Innovation Research Institute, has leveraged Generative AI technology to facilitate the diagnosis of eye diseases.

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It converts fundus photographs to high-precision angiographic images and dynamic videos within a couple seconds, eliminating the risks associated with traditional dye injections.

Its smart diagnostic system enables early detection of pathological changes on the retina such as microaneurysms and retinal hemorrhages.

This breakthrough research won the Special Merit Award from French Inventors Federation and Europe-France Inventors and a Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury at the 50th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva.

Helping stroke survivors

Meanwhile, Zhang Dan, director of the PolyU-Nanjing Technology and Innovation Research Institute, and the Consortium for Intelligent Robotics Research, and chair of Intelligent Robotics and Automation of the PolyU Department of Mechanical Engineering, has developed a first-of-its-kind robot with three degrees of freedom to provide comprehensive ankle rehabilitation of stroke survivors.

The robot assists patients with restricted ankle joints in home-based rehabilitation and aids in post-operative ankle joint functional rehabilitation for patients with cerebral hemiplegia and stroke.

The team is currently conducting clinical trials in collaboration with Huashan Hospital in Shanghai and plans to apply AI to offer personalized training for patients. This innovation holds significant potential for rehabilitation of the shoulder joint or hand.

For better hearing

On the other hand, hearing impairment affects over 1.5 billion people globally, according to the World Health Organisation.

But due to the complexity of cochlear implantation surgery, only 1.5 million such procedures have been performed during the past 45 years.

The team led by Tam Haw Yaw, chair of Photonics of the PolyU Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Associate Director of the Photonics Research Institute has overcome the technical bottleneck of excessive rigidity in traditional glass optical fibres.

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They developed an ultrafine, biocompatible plastic optical fibre sensor and integrated it into the cochlear implant electrode arrays to enhance surgical navigation and reduce trauma during cochlear implantation procedures.

This invention won the Thailand Award for the Best International Invention and Innovation and also a Gold Medal with Congratulations of Jury at the 50th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva.