Abstract:
This report investigates the ongoing paradigm shift in medical artificial intelligence, focusing on the transition from task-specific supervised learning to knowledge-driven, multimodal, and agentic intelligence. The objective is to present an integrated framework that unifies perception, reasoning, and decision-making in complex clinical contexts. Methodologically, the report introduces knowledge-enhanced multimodal foundation models that align linguistic, visual, and structured data through domain-informed pretraining, as well as self-supervised and reinforcement learning strategies that enhance factual consistency and interpretability. Results from representative studies demonstrate significant improvements in diagnostic generalization, fairness, and reasoning transparency. Finally, the development of agentic systems such as DeepRare illustrates how multi-agent collaboration and reflective reasoning can emulate clinical workflows for rare and complex diseases. Collectively, these findings suggest a coherent trajectory toward intelligent, autonomous, and trustworthy medical AI capable of supporting high-stakes clinical decision-making.
Short Bio:
Dr. Ya Zhang is a Distinguished Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where she serves as Vice Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence and Executive Vice Dean of the Institute of Medical Artificial Intelligence. A recipient of China’s National High-Level Talent Program, she also serves as Chief Scientist of the National 863 Program and Principal Investigator of the National Key R&D Project on New Generation Artificial Intelligence. Her research focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare, particularly on medical foundation models, multimodal medical AI, and knowledge-driven intelligent systems that enhance interpretability and clinical reliability in medical decision-making.
Dr. Zhang earned her B.S. degree from Tsinghua University and Ph.D. in Information Sciences and Technology from The Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining Shanghai Jiao Tong University, she was a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas and a Senior Research Manager at Yahoo! Labs. She has authored more than 200 papers in leading journals and conferences, including IEEE TPAMI and Nature sub-journals, with over 18,000 citations, and several of her works have been recognized as ESI Highly Cited Papers. Her research has received multiple distinctions, including the First-Class Shanghai Science and Technology Invention Award and the 2019 EURASIP Best Paper Award from the European Association for Signal Processing. She also supervised a doctoral student who received the Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award from the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence.