Citizens in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province have their faces scanned to enter the city's metro service on Monday at two pilot stations equipped with facial recognition systems. Passengers need to register their personal information in advance on the metro operator's app. Photo: VCG

A hospital in Shanghai has installed digital identity-authentication system supported by facial recognition technology to help crack down on scalpers scrambling for registration tickets.

To tighten the management of registration tickets during morning peak hours, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC) recently launched a facial-recognition-based system for appointments with special-needs specialists in the hospital, the Xinhua News Agency said on Thursday.

More than 860 patients succeeded to make appointments with the experts at the hospital and one scalper was barred from the premises on the day that the new measure was implemented, the report said.

Scalpers had been profiting from the issuance of appointment-registration tickets, which significantly disturbed the order of medical treatment, shut down channels for patients in need of appointments and led to the waste of tickets, the report said, citing FUSCC director Guo Xiaomao.

For cancer patients in critical condition, the hospital on Friday also launched an artificial-intelligence-powered appointment registration function on its official WeChat registration system to provide patients with fast-track access.

The high-tech system will effectively help regulate the chaotic phenomenon of scalpers hoarding registration tickets and maintain an orderly environment for medical treatment, a Shanghai-based industry watcher surnamed Yu told the Global Times on Thursday.

"Such measures should be promoted in the industry," Yu said.

Although public concerns of privacy security continue to rise alongside the wider application of facial-recognition systems, relevant governmental departments are stepping up efforts to tighten regulations to secure proper use of the technology, according to Yu.

China has established a national-level working group consisting of nearly 30 technology companies to establish standards for the facial-recognition industry, media reports showed on Wednesday.