Full-scale rollout ready through an agreement among 14 institutions, companies, and hospitals

AI development to predict and diagnose four diseases to be pursued

Gangwon Province announced that it completed the signing of a financial support project agreement on Friday, April 29, 2022, to fully promote the development of AI for four diseases, a key component of the “Gangwon Precision Medicine Industry Regulatory Free Zone Demonstration Project.”

The “Gangwon Precision Medicine Industry Regulatory Free Zone Demonstration Project” is an AI development project for the diagnosis and prediction of four diseases—chronic liver disease, prostate cancer, brain injury, and facial bone fractures. With the designation of the Gangwon Precision Medicine Industry Regulatory Free Zone, the province plans to invest a total project budget of KRW 12.3 billion, combining national funds, local funds, and private capital, across six projects—including the establishment of two “Data Safe Zones” to create an ecosystem for the safe use of medical data granted regulatory special provisions—and proceed with the initiative through November 2023.

<Participating institutions, companies, and hospitals>

Looking at this demonstration project, the province plans to develop four prediction and diagnosis solutions and pursue MFDS approval, through collaboration between development companies (relocating into the province) and regional hospitals.

Among the selected participants, AIDOT Co., Ltd., a specialized company in medical AI solutions that will 추진 the development and demonstration of an AI solution for prediction and diagnosis of chronic (alcoholic) liver disease, will develop a solution together with Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital by utilizing information from human-derived materials collected and analyzed through microbiome analysis. The province expects this to reduce both the risk of biopsy and testing costs.

Life Semantics Co., Ltd. and Kangwon National University Hospital will pursue the development and demonstration of an AI solution to predict prostate cancer, aiming to develop a solution that can manage prostate cancer risk and enable follow-up monitoring of patients within the province, thereby reducing unnecessary biopsies in conventional prostate cancer testing and lowering patients’ risk and costs while helping assess condition and prognosis.

Neurophet Co., Ltd., Yonsei University Wonju Severance Medical Center, and Kangwon National University Hospital will 추진 the development and demonstration of an AI solution for treatment strategies for brain injury patients, and it is expected that developing AI capable of precise treatment that accounts for individual brain structure will help minimize treatment side effects.

The “facial bone fracture prediction and diagnosis AI solution development and demonstration” project, to be pursued jointly by Geovision Co., Ltd. and Kangwon National University Hospital, is expected to enable timely fracture diagnosis and treatment for local patients at small hospitals where CT interpretation for facial bone fractures is not possible due to a shortage of specialists, and to improve future treatment costs and medical services.

In addition, the province is proceeding with the establishment of two “Data Safe Zones”—a project underway since January—so that genomic information and other data whose use had been deferred due to the sensitive nature of personal information in healthcare data can be utilized safely, alongside the four AI solution development and demonstration efforts.

The “Data Safe Zone” is designed so that external leakage of medical data is fundamentally impossible: only pre-approved users can access it within a physically secured space, and only analysis results may be taken out with approval. It is described as a system that must be ensured for medical AI development, and it will be used in conjunction with the AI diagnosis and prediction development projects for the four diseases.

Yoon In-jae, Director General of the Advanced Industry Bureau of Gangwon Province, said, “The financial support agreement signed today will serve as a catalyst for companies designated as regulatory-free-zone project operators to break out of the regulatory framework and achieve rapid commercialization, allowing them to preempt domestic and global markets,” adding, “Through this demonstration project, we will verify the stability, economic feasibility, and business viability of medical data utilization, reflect it in policy formulation for precision medicine promotion projects, and do our utmost to help Gangwon’s precision medicine industry make a leap forward.”

Published: May 1, 2022 / Segye Times / Reporter Kim Min-seok