"South Korea has secured a data sample with a national health insurance system and an e-questionnaire adoption rate exceeding 90%, and has embarked on building a bio big data project that gathers genomic information from a total of 1 million people. By integrating big data with artificial intelligence (AI) digital technologies, personalized healthcare becomes possible."
Jeong Eun-young, director of the Health Industry Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, noted in a speech at the 'Bio & Digital Health Open Innovation' forum held in London, United Kingdom, on the 4th (local time) that "we will lead innovation through the 'K Platform,' which collects large-scale cancer patient data centered around the National Cancer Center and 40 key hospitals, and opens it to new drug development researchers from universities, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies."
The forum, held over two days from the 3rd to the 4th, was co-hosted by the United Kingdom's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Medical Research Council (MRC), and King's College London (KCL). The theme is 'Solving health and diseases through bio-AI technology and fostering open innovation.'
This forum is the first occasion for South Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom to share the latest technologies in the bio-digital health field and seek collaboration options. Representatives from the UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Health Industry Promotion Agency, the Seoul Biohub, and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) attended. On the second day of the forum, the major policies for AI and digital health innovation in South Korea were introduced.
Samjong KPMG predicted in its report 'The Major Shift in the Healthcare Industry Triggered by AI' that South Korea's AI healthcare market would grow from $377 million (540 billion won) in 2023 to $6.672 billion (9.55 trillion won) by 2030. This represents an average annual growth rate of 50.8%, exceeding the global average of 41.8% during the same period.
UK institutions also expressed expectations for the development of South Korea's digital health technology. Giovanna Lalli, director of LifeARC in the UK, emphasized that "South Korea has strengths in digital health fields, including new drug development using AI, digital therapeutics, hospital applications, and telemedicine, and these digital medical technologies will soon have an innovative impact on patients."
LifeARC is a medical research organization in the UK that serves a similar role to South Korea's National New Drug Development Project Group (KDDF). LifeARC has conducted preclinical and phase 1 trials for the immune-oncology drug Keytruda from Merck & Co. (MSD). Keytruda ranked as the world's top-selling drug in 2023 and 2024. LifeARC is currently researching to find the next Keytruda.
Masahide Sakishige, deputy director of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), stated that "Japan is actively promoting the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and the introduction of AI in the medical and healthcare fields" and added, "We look forward to close cooperation with South Korea, which is rapidly establishing itself in this field."
In South Korea, there is a large-scale fund being established to create an AI-digital health ecosystem. The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it would create a 'K-Bio-Vaccine Mega Fund' worth 1 trillion won, combining investments from the ministry, state-sponsored banks, and private funds to stimulate investment in new drug development and vaccine sectors in 2022. Jeong Eun-young noted, "Despite challenges in the investment market, 306 billion won was raised last year, and we are aiming to raise over 60 billion won this year," adding, "The first and second funds have been established, and Daily Partners and NH Investment & Securities have been selected as the final managers for the third fund worth 100 billion won today."
Success stories of research achievements from universities and hospitals have emerged in succession. At the forum, Welt, which developed the digital therapeutic for insomnia called 'SleepQ', and Galux, an AI drug development company founded by Professor Seok Cha-ok of Seoul National University along with three of his students, including Vice President Park Tae-yong, introduced their key technologies that utilize digital technologies.
Kang Sung-ji, CEO of Welt, explained that "SleepQ uses AI software to analyze sleep patterns over 6 to 8 weeks to provide personalized treatment for patients" and emphasized that "the goal is to become a digital pharmaceutical company that responds to various diseases such as insomnia, depression, eating disorders, and drug addiction by advancing AI and digital health technologies." The domestic digital therapeutic SleepQ, the second of its kind, received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in April 2023 and prescriptions began at Severance Hospital in June last year.
Park Tae-yong, vice president of Galux, stated that "there are mainly two methods for finding protein structures using AI: 'protein engineering' and 'de novo design'." He added, "In addition to the protein engineering technology that changes the structure of existing proteins to enhance therapeutic efficacy, we will develop new antibody drugs using de novo design to create completely new protein structures from scratch."
On this day, corporations like Neuracle Science (developing new drugs for the nervous system), ProAppTec (gout treatment), and Enparticle (manufacturing nanoparticles and micro-particles) also presented their self-developed technologies.
AI and digital health technologies are being utilized in major hospitals in South Korea, including Asan Medical Center and Bundang Seoul National University Hospital. Professor Kim Nam-guk and his research team at Asan Medical Center developed AI to predict lung function for the early diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Professor Kim successfully trained the AI using the results of low-dose chest computed tomography (CT) tests and lung function tests from 16,148 individuals who underwent health screenings between 2015 and 2018, achieving over 90% accuracy in predicting lung function. The AI program for early diagnosis of lung diseases, including COPD, was transferred to Coreline Soft, a South Korean medical AI company.
Kang So-hyun, a surgical professor at Bundang Seoul National University Hospital, introduced the medical artificial intelligence (AI) center established five years ago. Bundang Seoul National University Hospital claims to be the world's first 100% digital hospital at its opening. In accordance with this, an 'online consultation' system was also introduced in 2023, allowing healthcare professionals, hospitalized patients, and their guardians to consult without direct meetings.
Professor Kang remarked that "our hospital's medical AI center provides educational services to doctors and nurses interested in medical AI research, as well as conducting various R&D projects," and added, "We are developing an AI that generates medical records using LMM (Large Language Model) based on patient hospitalization records, laboratory test results, or imaging examination results and hospitalization notes."