SKT and Seoul Veterinary Medical Association Raise Companion Animal Medical Standards with AI

SK Telecom announced on the 15th that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Seoul Veterinary Medical Association to expand its artificial intelligence (AI)-based healthcare services to companion animals and improve animal rights.

SKT and the Seoul Veterinary Medical Association agreed to cooperate in establishing an AI-based companion animal medical system by spreading SKT’s animal medical AI service, Excalibur, to approximately 700 animal hospitals located in Seoul. They will also jointly promote clinical medical education utilizing AI to advance companion animal care. Additionally, they plan to collaborate on the ‘X Camp.’ campaign, which SKT is conducting with the Korea Animal Hospital Association to promote proper animal X-ray imaging.

[Photo by SKT]

They also agreed to promote mutual academic exchanges to enhance companion animal welfare. Based on diagnostic results from AI-based medical examinations of companion animals, they will analyze how AI improves the medical welfare and quality of life of these animals and share the findings through medical academic conferences. As a starting point, SKT will lecture on the value of AI utilization in clinical settings and ways to use Excalibur at the 20th ‘Seoul Veterinary Clinical Conference’ held at Sejong University from the 23rd to 24th. Various programs to promote the spread of Excalibur will also be conducted.

Excalibur is an animal medical AI service that assists veterinarians by analyzing X-ray images of companion animals and providing diagnostic results. When an X-ray image of a dog taken at a hospital is uploaded to the Excalibur dedicated cloud, analysis results such as the location of diseases and abnormal findings are provided within 15 seconds. Excalibur is currently used by about 280 animal hospitals nationwide due to its high accuracy in detecting diseases and user convenience, as it can be easily used via the web without replacing existing X-ray equipment. SKT is continuously improving the accuracy of disease detection in clinical practice through research cooperation with five domestic veterinary colleges and five animal hospitals.

As part of its strategy to become an AI company, SKT is implementing AI services in customers’ daily lives. With the number of companion animal households exceeding 6 million, SKT launched Excalibur last September to apply AI technology to the medical welfare of companion animals. Last month, the diagnostic scope was expanded from musculoskeletal, thoracic, and cardiomegaly conditions in dogs to include the abdomen, increasing the number of analyzable diseases to 34. In particular, by the end of the year, SKT plans to continuously enhance Excalibur’s performance by expanding the diagnostic scope to include cats.

Son In-hyuk, Head of Innovation Business at SKT, stated, “SKT signed this agreement to innovate the medical environment for veterinarians by applying AI technology to companion animal healthcare and to contribute to improving the welfare of companion animals who cannot speak.”

Hwang Jeong-yeon, President of the Seoul Veterinary Medical Association, said, “Taking this agreement with SK Telecom as an opportunity, we will further advance the medical environment of animal hospitals affiliated with the Seoul Veterinary Medical Association and work together to innovate medical and management environments by utilizing advanced technologies such as AI.”

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