Smart Lab at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), led by Assistant Professor Hao Chen, has officially launched the SmartCare AI Medical Platform at the HKUST campus clinic. This milestone marks a new era in patient-centered healthcare, harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to transform the entire patient journey—from triage to treatment—while streamlining clinical workflows for healthcare professionals.

Pilot Program: Real-World Impact at HKUST Clinic

A six-month pilot study of SmartCare is currently underway at the HKUST Clinic, inviting over 15,000 students, faculty, and staff to participate and provide feedback. The pilot epitomizes Smart Lab’s commitment to translating cutting-edge AI research into practical solutions that directly benefit both patients and clinicians.

Core Features and Innovation

SmartCare is built on HKUST’s MedDr—one of the world’s largest open-source, generalist multimodal foundation models for medicine. The platform is designed to:

• Streamline clinical workflows
• Enhance patient-provider interactions
• Support next-generation medical education

Key features include:

• Intelligent Pre-visit Triage: Patients scan a QR code to submit medical histories and symptoms via text or voice, even before entering the clinic. The AI-powered triage system helps nurses optimize resource allocation and patient flow, significantly reducing waiting times.
• AI-Powered Consultation Assistant: The platform supports real-time, multilingual transcription (Cantonese, Mandarin, English), enabling doctors to focus on patients instead of manual note-taking, and fostering personalized care.
• Automated Medical Documentation: SmartCare auto-generates over 30 types of medical documents—including referral letters, prescriptions, and medical certificates—and provides AI-powered post-visit follow-up, reducing administrative burden for clinicians.
• Virtual Patient Module: This patent-pending feature enables simulated consultations with instant AI feedback, paving the way for innovative medical education and training.

Built on World-Class Team Research: MedDr2 and GSCo

SmartCare is powered by MedDr2—the world’s largest open-source, generalist multimodal foundation model for medicine—developed by the Smart Lab team based on the innovative GSCo framework. This foundational work was led by Sunan He and Yuxiang Nie, supervised by Prof. Hao Chen, with a team of outstanding collaborators, and sets a new paradigm for trustworthy AI in healthcare.

MedDr2 is built upon the GSCo framework, which enables seamless integration of both generalist foundation models (GFMs) and specialist models. This collaborative approach allows MedDr2 to deliver robust, precise, and scalable medical image analysis, demonstrating exceptional instruction-following, in-context learning, and generalization across diverse medical domains. GSCo introduces advanced collaborative mechanisms—including Mixture-of-Expert Diagnosis (MoED) and Retrieval-Augmented Diagnosis (RAD)—empowering MedDr2 to incorporate specialist knowledge for accurate diagnosis, even in out-of-domain or complex scenarios. This team-driven innovation is the scientific foundation of SmartCare’s advanced capabilities in clinical workflow optimization, intelligent triage, and automated documentation, ensuring the platform is both cutting-edge and clinically impactful.

Leadership Voices

Prof. Hao Chen, Director of Smart Lab and Assistant Professor at HKUST, remarked:

“SmartCare is the culmination of Smart Lab’s mission to develop trustworthy, real-world AI for healthcare. Leveraging our MedDr foundation model, SmartCare excels at complex medical queries, medical image interpretation, and seamless clinical integration. Following our campus pilot, we are exploring collaborations with Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong and CUHK Medical Centre for further real-world validation and broader impact. HKUST’s AI innovation ecosystem empowers SmartCare to redefine clinical efficiency and patient outcomes.”

Dr. Justin Cheng, SmartCare’s CEO, Co-Founder, and Registered Medical Practitioner at HKUST Clinic, added:

“SmartCare fundamentally shifts the clinical paradigm. By automating administrative tasks and documentation, SmartCare allows doctors to focus on the human connection at the heart of medicine, delivering truly personalized and high-quality care. As both a clinician and researcher, I am excited by the transformative impact SmartCare brings to daily practice.”

Prof. Samuel Yu Chung-Toi, Director of the Health, Safety, and Environment Office at HKUST, commented:

“The SmartCare pilot at our campus clinic exemplifies HKUST’s commitment to impactful, cross-disciplinary innovation. By providing Smart Lab with resources and an environment for real-world testing, we ensure our solutions address the needs of both healthcare providers and patients.”

Foundation and Partnership

SmartCare’s development is rooted in Smart Lab’s research excellence and HKUST’s vibrant AI innovation ecosystem. In May 2025, Smart Lab facilitated a tripartite partnership to integrate SmartCare’s platform with PanopticAI’s camera-based vital sign monitoring—another HKUST-nurtured innovation—at a new ambulatory care center in Admiralty, further enhancing operational efficiency and service quality.

Leadership and Research Excellence

The SmartCare project is led by Prof. Hao Chen (Director, Smart Lab; Assistant Professor, Computer Science & Engineering, HKUST), Dr. Justin Cheng (CEO & Co-Founder, SmartCare; Registered Medical Practitioner, HKUST Clinic), and Prof. Samuel Yu Chung-Toi (Director, Health, Safety, and Environment Office, HKUST). The team is dedicated to advancing AI medical foundation models and next-generation clinical technologies, translating scientific breakthroughs into tangible healthcare benefits.

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About Smart Lab

Smart Lab, led by Prof. Hao Chen at HKUST, is dedicated to advancing trustworthy AI technologies for healthcare and science. Our research spans large-scale models for healthcare, computer-assisted intervention, AI for science, and bioinformatics. Our mission is to drive a transformative revolution in medical practice and scientific discovery, shaping a healthier future.

About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is a world-class university driving innovative education, research excellence, and impactful knowledge transfer. With a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, HKUST was ranked 3rd in the Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2024 and 19th worldwide in the THE Impact Rankings 2025. Thirteen HKUST subjects were ranked among the world’s top 50 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025, with “Data Science and Artificial Intelligence” ranked 17th globally and first in Hong Kong. Over 80% of our research was rated “internationally excellent” or “world leading” in Hong Kong’s latest Research Assessment Exercise. As of May 2025, HKUST members have founded over 1,800 active start-ups, including 10 Unicorns and 17 exits (IPO or M&A).

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