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put on the device, turn on the switch, and walk. in the spinal surgery ward of the third affiliated hospital of sun yat-sen university (hereinafter referred to as "zhongshan third hospital"), a patient paralyzed by spinal cord injury took the first step forward.

this device is a brain-controlled exoskeleton robot developed by zhongshan hospital no. 3. when the patient wears the device and watches the animation on the screen, he can drive his limbs to make corresponding movements by thinking about "how to walk".

such scenes are not uncommon in hospitals in guangdong. with the development of technology, new technologies such as brain-computer interfaces and artificial intelligence are gradually being implemented in clinical practice, bringing more possibilities for medical development. recently, the first stop of the guangdong health and health new productivity-visiting hospitals activity came to zhongshan third hospital. president rong limin said that at present, clinicians are constantly promoting technological innovation and enriching diagnosis and treatment methods, which will bring more new hope to patients with refractory and complex diseases.

brain-controlled exoskeleton robot

new technology creates new treatment for spinal cord injury

"this robot can help patients with spinal cord injuries exercise their muscles, rebuild neural circuits, and improve treatment outcomes," said rong liming, pointing to the equipment in front of him.

the person using the device is fang qiang (pseudonym), a patient with spinal cord injury. he wears the wearable device on his head, and his knees, thighs, waist and other parts of his body are connected to the robot. he stares at the computer screen in front of him.

spinal cord injury is a serious injury to the central nervous system that can cause motor, sensory, and bowel and bladder dysfunction and paralysis. long-term bed rest can also cause complications such as venous thrombosis and pressure sores.

in recent years, zhongshan third hospital has continued to explore new treatment options for spinal cord injury. "traditional treatments include surgery, medication, rehabilitation exercises, acupuncture, etc. today, the medical community is exploring more dimensional comprehensive treatments such as stem cells, brain-controlled exoskeleton robots, and biomaterial transplantation," said rong limin.

in brain-controlled exoskeleton robot treatment, after the patient puts on the entire set of equipment, a high-performance computer will decode the patient's "motor imagery" eeg signals and transmit them to the outside. subsequently, the exoskeleton robot that receives the signal will drive the patient's limbs to make corresponding movements.

fang qiang is one of the subjects in this study. six months ago, he suffered a fracture of the lumbar vertebra and thoracolumbar spinal cord injury in a car accident, and could only move around in a wheelchair. after nearly three months of comprehensive treatment, he can now walk more than 10 meters with assistance, and his muscle strength has also improved significantly.

"through brain imagination and visual touch, the human body can control the robot, and the robot can also drive the human body to move. the study also found that this process is also beneficial to the patient's cerebral cortex and helps patients maintain an optimistic mood during treatment." said rong limin.

at the same time, zhongshan hospital no. 3 also took the lead in carrying out the first stem cell clinical research project in the field of spinal cord injury in china that was registered with the national health commission and the state food and drug administration.

artificial intelligence can diagnose chronic sinusitis subtypes with 98% accuracy

in the department of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at zhongshan hospital no. 3, a diagnostic report from an artificial intelligence doctor clearly showed the number of various inflammatory cells in the patient's pathological sections and made a classification diagnosis of the patient's chronic sinusitis.

"what used to take doctors five hours to complete can now be done by artificial intelligence in one minute with an accuracy rate of up to 98%," said yang qintai, deputy director of zhongshan hospital no. 3.

chronic sinusitis is prone to recurrence, and many patients need multiple surgeries. this is mainly because different subtypes of sinusitis vary greatly, but clinical diagnosis is often "one-size-fits-all", which affects the treatment effect. "if pathological slides are classified manually, there will be large sampling errors and it is very time-consuming," said yang qintai.

in this context, a multidisciplinary medical and engineering team including the department of otolaryngology, department of allergy, and big data artificial intelligence center of zhongshan third hospital developed the world's first artificial intelligence diagnosis system for nasal polyp pathology and applied it in clinical practice. now, with the collaboration of doctors and artificial intelligence, subtypes of chronic sinusitis can be diagnosed quickly and accurately, improving treatment outcomes.

based on the artificial intelligence identification system for chronic sinusitis, the allergy department and otolaryngology department team of zhongshan hospital no. 3 also carried out an artificial intelligence pollen identification study, cooperating with the guangdong provincial meteorological bureau, the south china botanical garden of the chinese academy of sciences and other units to build an artificial intelligence pollen early warning monitoring network, using artificial intelligence to more accurately identify allergenic pollen and remind allergy patients to avoid areas and times with high pollen concentrations.

"today's clinicians not only have to maintain cells and mice, but also data!" yang qintai said that in the future, he hopes to combine more clinical data and explore multimodal artificial intelligence to better serve patients.

nan fang daily reporter wu yanan and bian delong