Lunit Participates in Saudi National Digital Healthcare Project... Expanding Solution Supply

Medical AI company Lunit announced on the 26th that it will officially participate in the 'Healthcare Sandbox,' a project promoted by the Saudi Arabian government as part of the national strategic initiative 'Vision 2030' to drive digital innovation in the healthcare sector, becoming the first Korean company to do so.

On the 25th, at SEHA Virtual Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a commemorative event was held to celebrate Lunit's participation in the 'Saudi Healthcare Sandbox.' Seo Beom-seok, CEO of Lunit; Park Jun-yong, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia; Abdulaziz bin Hamad Romeh, Deputy Minister of Health of Saudi Arabia; and Rakan bin Dohaysh, Deputy Assistant Minister of International Cooperation of Saudi Arabia (from the fourth person on the left) are posing for a commemorative photo.
[Photo by Lunit]

The Healthcare Sandbox is a project established by the Saudi Ministry of Health (MoH) to innovate national healthcare services through a digital transformation in the healthcare sector. Participating companies receive support from the MoH to engage in projects aimed at advancing the national healthcare system and building a digital ecosystem.

On the 25th, the MoH held a commemorative event in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, to support Lunit's participation in the sandbox. The event was attended by key Saudi figures including Abdulaziz Bin Hamad Romeh, Deputy Minister of MoH, and Rakan Bin Dohaish, Deputy Assistant Minister of the Saudi Ministry of International Cooperation, as well as high-ranking Korean government officials such as Ambassador Park Jun-yong to Saudi Arabia and about ten related personnel including Lunit CEO Seo Beom-seok. This event was actively promoted through cooperation between the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support domestic healthcare exports.

Through this sandbox participation, Lunit and SEHA Virtual Hospital (SVH), the world's largest public virtual hospital under the MoH, agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to expand the supply of Lunit’s AI solutions and conduct a three-month proof of concept (PoC) project. In May, Lunit was selected for the AI Voucher Global Project hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, and has been operating its chest X-ray AI image analysis solution 'Lunit Insight CXR' and mammography AI image analysis solution 'Lunit Insight MMG' at the Saudi SVH.

This expansion of supply is reported to be under the direction of Fahad Al-Jalajel, Minister of MoH. Minister Fahad recognized Lunit’s achievements in deploying AI solutions at medical institutions during the Hajj, the largest Islamic pilgrimage event held in Mecca in June with participation from 2 million people across more than 160 countries, contributing to emergency and urgent patient care, and decided on this expanded supply.

SVH plans to expand the installation of Lunit AI solutions starting from King Saud Medical City Hospital in Riyadh and Al Mashaier Hospitals in Mecca. Lunit will expand the AI solution performance testing, which was previously conducted in specific SVH locations in Saudi regional hubs, to 150 virtual hospitals nationwide centered around Riyadh, where King Faisal Hospital is located.

Additionally, Lunit and SVH have agreed to actively collaborate on the joint development of AI-based CT (computed tomography) imaging diagnostic solutions to be utilized for national cancer screening and tuberculosis testing conducted at public virtual hospitals across Saudi Arabia. Both parties plan to closely cooperate to secure large-scale medical data necessary for enhancing AI performance, including improving cancer diagnostic accuracy.

Seo Beom-seok, CEO of Lunit, said, "Lunit’s participation in this sandbox reflects the Saudi government’s strong commitment to successfully driving a digital transformation of the national healthcare system led by AI. We will strengthen our collaborative relationship with the Saudi Ministry of Health and SVH to ensure that Saudi citizens can receive high-quality medical services through AI."

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