NANNING — In a high-tech hall at Guangxi Medical University in South China, a digital avatar came to life, speaking fluent Vietnamese to a room full of delegates from across Southeast Asia.

The scene unfolded on March 16 at the launch of the Guangxi Medical Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, the latest milestone in China's regional "AI + Healthcare" strategy.

Positioned as a platform for China-ASEAN medical intelligence sharing, the institute was established in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Its debut highlights the growing role of regional hubs in China's broader artificial intelligence push, aimed at exporting localized, cost-effective healthcare solutions to neighboring countries.

Guangxi, the only provincial-level region in China with both land and sea borders with ASEAN, benefits from what officials describe as a "shared clinical profile". From hereditary blood disorders such as thalassemia to tropical infectious diseases, health challenges in Guangxi closely resemble those across Southeast Asia.

"Given our unique advantage of possessing a massive volume of characteristic clinical data, the institute will serve as a strategic hub," said Li Lang, vice-president of Guangxi Medical University.

"We import top-tier algorithms from China's tech hubs like Beijing and Shanghai, train them on our disease profiles, and refine them with ASEAN-specific data so they meet local needs," Li said.

The launch drew regional stakeholders including Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research as well as Vietnam's Hue Central Hospital, along with companies such as Beijing Yidu Technology Holdings Co and Shanghai SenseTime Shancui Healthcare Technology Co.

Among the flagship projects is "Urology's Talk", described as the world's first interactive medical AI focused on urology and supporting multiple ASEAN languages.

Unlike general-purpose chatbots, it is trained on specialized medical data to address what developers call the "last kilometer" problem — integrating clinical data into cross-border consultations. Cheng Jiwen, vice-president of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, said language barriers remain a key obstacle in telemedicine.

"We are bridging the clinical gap for minority dialects that global models often ignore," Cheng said."It allows a specialist in Nanning to communicate effectively with a patient in rural Vietnam without a human translator."

The system currently supports Mandarin, English and Vietnamese, with Thai, Burmese and Khmer in development.

Cheng said building local-language datasets is critical, noting that patients often describe symptoms in colloquial terms that standard models fail to recognize.

Beyond modern medicine, the institute is also digitizing traditional Chinese medicine. Led by cardiovascular specialist Huang Feng, an AI-powered device analyzes the four traditional diagnostic methods — observation, listening, inquiry and pulse-taking — using computer vision and data modeling.

One of the institute's most significant developments targets thalassemia, which is prevalent across Southeast Asia.

An AI tool known as "Iron Detective" assesses iron overload in patients, a key factor in long-term survival. Built on more than 5,000 cases from China, Vietnam and Laos, it automates MRI analysis, reducing time and potential human error.

Developer Peng Peng, a radiologist at the affiliated hospital, said the system cuts diagnostic costs by about two-thirds compared with similar proprietary software. It has been adopted in 52 hospitals across China and is being extended to community-level facilities through remote diagnostics.

"AI is particularly powerful for grassroots healthcare in developing countries," Li said, adding that some systems already perform at the level of a physician with seven or eight years of experience.

The institute will operate through joint research with ASEAN partners, identifying regional needs, refining solutions using Guangxi's clinical infrastructure and scaling them across the region, said Zeng Zhiyu, president of Guangxi Medical University.

Zeng said Guangxi is shifting from a trade gateway to a hub for digital healthcare innovation.

"We are no longer just sharing medical talent," he said. "We are sharing healthcare intelligence for the two billion people in our region, making high-end diagnostics accessible to developing markets."

XINHUA