Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital Selected for Korea-Vietnam Joint Research... Developing Optimal Antibiotic Dosing Model

Development of an AI-Based System for Vancomycin Dosage Determination

Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital is set to develop an artificial intelligence-based clinical decision support system to assist with antibiotic dosage determination.

Front view of Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital. Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital

On March 16, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital announced that it had been selected for a new project under the "2026 Korea-Vietnam Joint Research Program" promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The research topic is the development of an interpretable artificial intelligence model-based clinical decision support system (CDSS) for determining the optimal dosage of vancomycin, along with multinational clinical validation. The study will span three years, from February 2026 to February 2029. The principal investigator is Kim Yongkyun, Director of the Hallym International Antibiotic Resistance Center.

Vancomycin is a key antibiotic used to treat methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Because the therapeutic blood concentration and the toxic concentration range are narrow, precise dosage adjustment is crucial. Currently, the therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) method is used in clinical settings, where the patient's blood drug concentration is measured to adjust the dosage.

The research team plans to collect blood concentration and clinical data from patients who have received vancomycin at medical institutions in Korea and Vietnam to build a multinational standard dataset. Based on this, they will develop an "interpretable AI model" that medical staff can understand and utilize.

The developed model will undergo cross-validation at medical institutions in Korea and Vietnam to assess its accuracy and clinical applicability. Subsequently, a clinical decision support system integrated with hospital electronic medical records (EMR) will be established to verify usability and safety in real-world medical settings.

This research will be conducted in collaboration with the 175 Military Hospital, a medical institution under the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense. The two institutions have continued joint research cooperation in the field of infectious diseases since the visit of the ECMO Center at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital in 2023.

Director Kim stated, "Antibiotic resistance is a global public health issue," adding, "We will advance precision vancomycin dosing technology through AI-based data analysis and establish an international joint research model."

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