'Korean New Deal of the Month' Selects Team Developing Low Dead Space Syringes and Others

Development of Low Dead Space Vaccine Syringes by Yoon Jong-deok and 10 Others at Poonglim Pharmatech
Development of AI for Diagnosing Pediatric Developmental Delay 'Doctor Answer' by Kim Jong-jae, Director of Asan Life Science Institute
Robot-Assisted Daily Living Support Space for Elderly and Disabled, National Rehabilitation Center 'Smart Care Space'

The appearance of the Smart Care Space.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 30th that it has jointly selected the 'Korean New Deal of the Month' with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and other related ministries.

The Korean New Deal of the Month, which started this month, aims to discover cases that embody innovation and a spirit of challenge in line with the policy intent of 'Korea's Transformation, Korean New Deal.'

In the 'Person' category of the Korean New Deal of the Month, 10 employees of Poonglim Pharmatech, who developed and produced Korea's first low dead space (LDS) vaccine syringe, and Dr. Jongjae Kim, director of the Asan Institute for Life Sciences at Seoul Asan Medical Center and the development team of the artificial intelligence (AI) ‘Dr. Answer’ that quickly identifies causes of intractable diseases, were selected.

The Poonglim Pharmatech employees proactively engaged in research and development of the low dead space syringe based on their experience in domestic production of prefilled syringes (pre-charged with medicine) in 2016, gaining attention by applying it in domestic vaccine inoculation sites. Unlike regular syringes, low dead space syringes can use vaccines without waste. While regular syringes can administer five doses per vial, low dead space syringes can inject six or more doses with almost no residual volume, effectively increasing vaccine production by 20%.

Dr. Jongjae Kim, director of the Asan Institute for Life Sciences at Seoul Asan Medical Center, is a physician and the chief developer of the Korean New Deal project ‘Intelligent Medical AI Dr. Answer.’ Dr. Answer is a project that enables disease prediction, diagnosis, and treatment tailored to individual characteristics for eight major diseases including dementia. In particular, it is expected to help diagnose and provide early treatment by rapidly identifying the causative genes of rare pediatric genetic diseases.

In the 'Place' category of the Korean New Deal of the Month, the Smart Care Space of the National Rehabilitation Center, which is conducting service demonstration research on four types of robots that care for elderly and disabled people who have difficulty living independently, was selected. The Smart Care Space is a place where four care robots are tested in a space arranged like a typical home. It researches an optimized spatial service model so that elderly or disabled individuals who have difficulty moving alone can live comfortably with the help of care robots.

The Korean New Deal of the Month is selected through evaluations by a panel of judges after candidates are recommended by 14 central administrative agencies promoting related projects. The judging panel includes about 20 people active in various fields such as Creative Director Kyungjong Seo, travel writer Minwoo Park, Professor Jonghyuk Lee of the Department of Media Communication at Kwangwoon University, Seok Nogi, CEO of Yeongju Blacksmith, Dongpil Kim, Vice President of AI specialist company Elsolu, Research Fellow Jiyoung Park of the Korea Transport Institute, and TikTok influencers ‘Doo Sisters.’

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Namgi Hong explained, “Bold innovation and challenge are the driving forces for the success of the Korean New Deal to leap forward as a leading country,” adding, “The government will make further efforts so that numerous innovative cases of the Korean New Deal across the country can be discovered and spread.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.