The HKU faculty of medicine will offer a generative AI literary series as a course to facilitate and enhance teaching and learning, through various multimedia methods.

The department has developed a simulation education system called KASES to imitate real-life patient scenarios and an app that helps classify X-rays.

Regardless of their disciplines or year of study, students can use these virtual systems with information compiled and validated by professors to practice the process of clinical reasoning and history taking. This particularly benefits first-year medical students who are not yet able to attend clinicals.

Clinical Associate Professor and Director of Educational Technology Dr Gary Lau explained the need for AI literacy in the medical field.

"Our future healthcare professionals must understand not only the potentials of generative AI but also the ethical issues, potential legal aspects, and professional considerations," he said.

While AI offers new opportunities for learning, Lau stressed the importance of not becoming over dependent.

"Teaching can not be purely replaced by AI. It will enhance our teaching, but the interaction of our students with real life patients is highly invaluable and cannot be replaced."