KT and Gangbuk Samsung Hospital Collaborate on Digital Healthcare Platform Research

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] KT announced on the 16th that it will collaborate with Gangbuk Samsung Hospital on joint research and service development in digital healthcare. Based on the data held by both companies, the goal is to realize the highest level of precision medicine in Korea and contribute to public health improvement by combining KT's capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and cloud business with Gangbuk Samsung Hospital's medical expertise to implement digital healthcare services.

KT and Gangbuk Samsung Hospital signed a digital healthcare business agreement in April this year and agreed to cooperate in four areas: ▲joint establishment of a digital healthcare platform service foundation ▲digitalization of Gangbuk Samsung Hospital's health management programs ▲joint development of personal health status prediction and analysis algorithms ▲health promotion for KT employees. Since then, they have been working to specify cooperation plans in each area.

KT is focusing on nurturing eight major growth businesses to create future growth engines as a platform company. The digital & bio health business is one of them, and KT established a dedicated organization earlier this year to develop various new businesses. From the MyData perspective, KT is preparing a platform that connects various personal health-related data and implements customized health management services based on this data.

Gangbuk Samsung Hospital pioneered the establishment of a health screening center in 1981, when the concept of preventive medicine was still vague, laying the foundation for preventive medicine. Since then, through continuous cooperation with world-renowned institutions such as Johns Hopkins, the hospital has established global standards and worked to develop criteria suitable for Koreans. In this way, Gangbuk Samsung Hospital systematically accumulates data generated throughout the entire process from screening to diagnosis and treatment, which is expected to create significant synergy for research aimed at preventive medicine and personalized health management.

The two parties will collaborate on developing a health index algorithm that can predict the current health status and the probability of major chronic disease onset. When users agree to use their health screening information and lifestyle records data on KT's digital healthcare platform, the algorithm analyzes and quantifies the data to inform users of their health status.

By combining the high-quality screening data already held by Gangbuk Samsung Hospital with the lifestyle data secured through KT's platform, meaningful research results are expected. To this end, Gangbuk Samsung Hospital plans to enhance the accuracy of the algorithm by deploying key research personnel from its Corporate Health Research Institute and utilizing data accumulated over many years in the research.

The two companies will add new value by providing platform-based services that digitalize the health management programs developed and operated by Gangbuk Samsung Hospital. After pilot application as a customized health management program for employees to verify its effectiveness, the program will be introduced and expanded on the platform continuously.

Kim Hyung-wook, Vice President and Head of KT's Future Value Promotion Office, said, "By combining KT's ABC capabilities with Gangbuk Samsung Hospital's top-level medical expertise and screening data in Korea, we will implement the country's best precision medicine covering the entire life cycle from diagnosis, treatment, management to prevention." He added, "We will lead the development of innovative services in various fields of the healthcare industry and contribute to improving the quality of life for the public."

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