[GoodBrain 2022] Executive Director Lee Haeseong "Combining AI with Big Data ... Disease Prevention through DTx"

Lee Haeseong, Head of KT Digital Health P-TF, is giving a lecture on the theme "How to Invest in DTx" at the 'Good Brain 2022 International Conference' hosted by Asia Economy on the 21st at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyunmin kimhyun81@

"Digital therapeutics (DTx) will start with collecting, analyzing, and processing healthcare data, improve the quality of medical care, and lead innovation in the digital healthcare industry. It can be utilized beyond disease diagnosis to treatment, and further into the areas of disease prevention and management."

Lee Haeseong, Head of KT Digital Health P-TF (Senior Executive Vice President), spoke as a lecturer at the 'Good Brain 2022 International Conference' hosted by Asia Economy on the 21st, stating, "From domestic startups to large corporations, digital platform companies, and even pharmaceutical companies, there is great interest in DTx, and they are participating in research and development, so we expect visible results soon."

KT, where Lee serves, is a major telecommunications company but already possesses various core technologies in the digital healthcare business sector based on artificial intelligence (AI) speakers, voice-related big data, and cloud. Lee explained that KT is developing medical AI solutions for thyroid diseases and dysphagia patients and also has the capability to integrate these technologies.

They are already collaborating with domestic and international pharmaceutical companies, startups, academia, and hospitals. In the relatively less regulated Vietnamese market, they have started medical consultation and management services for cancer and chronic disease patients through non-face-to-face solutions. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, they provided public interest digital healthcare services such as COVID testing support for airport arrivals and departures using AI and big data.

KT now plans to open a new paradigm of DTx-based treatment in terms of expanding new business investments, together with medical institutions (Catholic Central Medical Center) and pharmaceutical companies (Hanmi Pharmaceutical). They are accelerating the development of DTx related to artificial pancreas technology, alcohol and nicotine addiction, and heart failure, with some approaching confirmatory clinical trials.

For the DTx industry to grow and spread, participation from investors is essential. Lee said, "Under the premise that DTx might remain an auxiliary means of existing treatments based on mobile platforms, it is important to carefully check business strategies, contractual relationships, pipelines, and clinical cooperation institutions before investing." He added, "Not only venture capital (VC) but also strategic investors (SI) should invest for a virtuous cycle in the market, and ecosystem stakeholders such as regulatory authorities (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Ministry of Science and Technology), insurers (Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service), and pharmaceutical companies should closely coordinate to expand the DTx industry ecosystem."

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