The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Information Service (KHIS) said on the 30th they are recruiting consortiums to join the "2026 medical AI testbed support project" to strengthen the competitiveness of the medical artificial intelligence (AI) industry and promote the digital transformation (AX) of medical settings.
The application period is from Mar. 31 to May 4. The project is being implemented for the first time this year, and consortiums will be formed by small and midsize companies in the medical AI field and "medical data-centered hospitals."
Selected consortiums will receive comprehensive support to verify AI products and services in real clinical settings, including ▲ testbed environment construction ▲ evaluation metric design ▲ product integration ▲ pilot implementation ▲ results analysis.
A medical data-centered hospital is a medical institution that has built data infrastructure and utilization systems to use clinical data for research and development, and currently 45 institutions (7 consortiums) are participating.
There are two types of support. "Type 1" covers AI-based digital medical devices approved by the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety, used for diagnostic support or disease prediction. "Type 2" is AI that is not a medical device but supports efficiency in clinical workflows, including various solutions such as medical record automation, data standardization, and hospital operations optimization.
The support scale is 3.2 billion won in total for type 1 (12 projects) and 1.6 billion won for type 2 (10 projects). The grant per project will cover about 80% of project costs, with the remainder borne by corporations.
The ministry said that while the introduction of medical AI technology into actual clinical settings is expected to improve clinical outcomes and efficiency, verification in clinical environments is essential because it is directly linked to patient safety.
Through this project, the plan is to build a foundation for cooperation between medical institutions and corporations, verify the clinical effectiveness and expense-effectiveness of AI products, and facilitate market entry and adoption by medical institutions. In particular, institutions outside the Seoul metropolitan area will receive preferential consideration.
The project announcement and applications can be found on the healthcare data utilization portal, and the announcement is also provided in Markdown format in consideration of AI use.