Sinusitis (rhinosinusitis), in which inflammation occurs in the sinuses, the hollow spaces inside the facial bones, and pus accumulates, is cited as a disease whose symptoms are similar to a cold and for which antibiotics are overprescribed. To accurately diagnose sinusitis, a CT or X-ray exam is needed, but in primary care settings at home and abroad, CT use is limited, so defensive care like "let's prescribe antibiotics first" tends to follow.
Youto Medtech, a medical device startup founded in 2017, focused on this limitation and developed Sinus View, a sinusitis diagnostic device that combines near-infrared (NIR) and artificial intelligence (AI).
Sinus View analyzes how much light from a mouthpiece inserted into the mouth passes through the sinuses and checks the sinus condition in about 10 seconds. If pus has accumulated, light does not pass well, while normal sinuses allow light to transmit relatively well.
On the 6th, in an interview with ChosunBiz at the company's office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Chief Executive Kim Yang-seok of Youto Medtech said, "There is no radiation exposure and no need for large equipment like a CT scanner, so it can be used in internal medicine and pediatrics, and it is designed so even young children can be examined."
After earning a doctorate in life sciences from POSTECH, Kim researched bioinformatics at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the United States, then served as Daewoong Pharmaceutical(069620) head of the research headquarters and 네이버 and head of the Daewoong AI joint venture before choosing to start a company.
Kim said, "The principle itself is simple, but actual implementation was not easy," adding, "Skin and bone thickness differ from person to person, so we had to distinguish whether the light attenuation was due to pus or individual anatomical differences, and developing the algorithm to solve this took the most time." Because bone thickness and bone density vary by children versus adults and by body type, the same inflammation appears as different signals, making the AI algorithm that compensates for this the core of the technology.
Sinus View has trained its AI on more than 200,000 cases and has been introduced at about 70 medical institutions in Korea. In the early development stage, the company built the algorithm through clinical work at Kosin University Gospel Hospital, and then advanced the AI using data accumulated in real-world clinical settings.
Kim cited Youto Medtech's greatest strength as "data-generating AI."
He said, "Most AI medical devices are software that reads CT and MRI images generated at hospitals better, whereas we produce unprecedented sinus transillumination images with our own hardware and thus own the very source of the data."
He added, "For latecomers to catch up, they would have to build new hardware, redo clinical studies, and accumulate data from scratch," and said, "Since we hold both hardware and software patents, the barrier to entry is high, and it would take 8 to 10 years for latecomers to reach the same level."
There were also challenges during commercialization. Sinus View received medical device approval from the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety in 2020, but commercialization was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Youto Medtech is targeting overseas markets first. The first target is Indonesia. The company signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Indonesian medical device distributor idsMED and aims to begin supplying products in the fourth quarter after obtaining local approval in the third quarter this year. Using this as a springboard, it plans to expand into Southeast Asia.
Kim said, "Korea is a market for validating technology and data, and full-fledged growth will come overseas," adding, "In Southeast Asia, where medical infrastructure is lacking, demand for sinusitis diagnostic equipment is high." He said, "We are also continuing business talks in Japan and China," and added, "In the long term, our goal is to obtain U.S. FDA approval and enter the North American market."
The company is also raising investment to advance the technology and expand the business. Youto Medtech is currently pursuing a Series A round of about 3 billion won. Existing investors include Korea Development Bank (KDB), Kakao Healthcare, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT), and Hyundai Venture Investment.
The company is also developing a next-generation multimodal platform that combines not only near-infrared but also thermography and ultrasound. The goal is to go beyond detecting whether pus is present in the sinuses to distinguishing among bacterial infection, viral infection, and allergic inflammation.
Kim explained, "Thermography can check heat changes due to infection, and ultrasound can additionally confirm the state of pus." This is being developed with support after being selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' deep tech TIPS program.
Youto Medtech was recently selected as Korea's representative for MedTech Innovator APAC 2026, considered the world's largest medical device accelerator, and made the Global Top 20 cohort, which picks 20 innovative medical device companies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Kim said, "Ultimately, we want to become the basic diagnostic device used first in respiratory care, like taking blood pressure in internal medicine," and added, "Starting with sinusitis, we will expand to respiratory diseases around the face such as otitis media and grow into a global company in AI respiratory medical devices."