UNIST·UCLA Smart Health Center Awards Winners of the Digital Healthcare Challenge

UNIST has selected Medical AI as the final winning team of the ‘Digital Healthcare Challenge by UNIST X UCLA Center for SMART Health,’ co-hosted with the UCLA Center for SMART Health in the United States.

On the 30th, UNIST held an awards ceremony at UNIST Haedong Hall and announced the selection results.

The Digital Healthcare Challenge is a competition designed to enhance the international competitiveness of domestic medical digital solutions and to promote entry into overseas markets. The winning team is given the opportunity to validate their digital solution using clinical data from the world-renowned UCLA Health.

The competition opened for submissions on May 18 and a total of seven teams participated. The final winner, Medical AI, received high evaluations in medical innovation, product readiness, and the feasibility of validation using overseas data.

Medical AI’s digital healthcare solution, ‘AiTiALVSD,’ is an early detection program for heart failure. The AI analyzes electrocardiogram (ECG) data and provides a score indicating the possibility of left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Previously, it was difficult to determine the possibility of heart failure using only ECG data.

Kwon Jun-myeong, CEO of Medical AI AI (left), and Shim Jae-young, Dean of the School of Information and Bio Convergence at UNIST, are taking a victory commemorative photo.

Seongcheol Bae, Director of the UNIST Smart Healthcare Center, evaluated, “The winning solution by Medical AI is highly innovative in technology as it realizes what ‘doctors cannot do’ through artificial intelligence technology.”

He added, “UNIST plans to strengthen international cooperation to continue discovering excellent domestic digital medical technologies and support their market entry.”

Junmyeong Kwon, CEO of Medical AI, said, “‘AiTiALVSD’ has proven its value by assisting in diagnosing heart failure, which could not be diagnosed by human ECG interpretation technology,” and added, “We will use this as a stepping stone to expand beyond the domestic market into the broader global market.”

Dr. Arash Naeim, Director of the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Smart Health Center, stated, “This is a very encouraging example of applying innovative data science and artificial intelligence to disease screening and diagnosis,” and added, “We hope that such innovation will have a global impact and further promote international cooperation.”

Medical AI has begun validation work for ‘AiTiALVSD’ using data accumulated at UCLA Health. Depending on the validation results, discussions will also begin for clinical trials in hospitals in the United States and FDA approval procedures.

The competition was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT’s international cooperation project, LG Uplus, and the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute. UNIST and the UCLA Center for SMART Health plan to hold the competition annually until 2025.

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