韩国将建设公共医疗AI高速路并强化医疗AI解决方案补偿

The government plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to fill gaps in regional and essential medical care. To this end, it will connect regional and local responsible medical institutions nationwide to an AI platform called the "Public Healthcare Highway," pursuing artificial intelligence transformation (AX) while strengthening rewards for the use of currently commercialized medical AI solutions.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Science and ICT announced the "AI Basic Healthcare Strategy" containing these details at a "Regional, Essential and Public Healthcare Roundtable" held at the Blue House on the 22nd, presided over by President Lee Jae-myung. The government decided to introduce an AI package to assist with treatment, administration, and health management—capable of automatically generating medical records and other tasks—at public health centers and branch centers nationwide, so that high-quality care can be received even in underserved areas. Essential-specialty clinics in underserved areas, such as obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics, will be provided with a "Primary Care AX Voucher," which settles usage fees when clinics use AI solutions suited to their circumstances.
To solve the "emergency room runaround" problem, the government will also promote the spread of an "Integrated Emergency AI Platform" that uses AI from ambulance transport to the selection of an appropriate hospital. The plan is to expand nationwide the AI system currently adopted by Kyungpook National University Hospital, which analyzes patient conditions across the entire process from the transport of emergency patients to emergency room treatment. Local public hospitals, which have faced limits in AI transition due to poor financial conditions, will be connected to a platform called the "Public Healthcare AI Highway" (tentative name), equipped with a variety of medical AI. The goal is to have all 72 regional and local responsible medical institutions participate by 2029, starting with nine institutions from the second half of this year.
The government will also pursue measures to strengthen rewards for medical AI solutions. The key is that, in addition to the current method of rewarding individual medical procedures that use AI solutions, additional fees will be paid by evaluating how much operational efficiency each medical institution has improved through AI solutions. As a result, the profitability of AI companies that assist medical staff in diagnosis, such as Lunit (328130), is expected to improve. Jeong Kyung-sil, director general of the Health and Medical Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, explained, "There are many cases where it is currently difficult to conclude that the cost-effectiveness of individual medical procedures using AI is far superior, but across a medical institution as a whole it can help reduce workload and improve efficiency." She added, "It means we will provide additional rewards when a hospital produces results by making its entire system more efficient through AI."