[The Future of Medical AX]⑥ "We Built a Supercar, but There's No Road"... The Reality of Local Public Healthcare

Regional Medical Centers Still Struggling with Basic DX
A Double Crisis: Medical and Technological Gaps
National GPU Resources to Be Allocated First
Dedicated 'Public AX Network' in the Works
Paperless, CD-Free 'AI Referral and Return

Editor's NoteKorean healthcare stands at a critical turning point. The shift into a super-aging society, a rise in chronic diseases, shortages of essential medical personnel, and widening regional disparities make it difficult for the current medical system alone to cope. Both the government and the healthcare sector are looking to AI Transformation (AX) in medicine, which goes beyond simply adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to redesigning healthcare as a whole. The goal is not merely for AI to support or replace doctors, but to create a healthcare environment where every citizen, regardless of region or income, can receive high-quality care. The Asia Business Daily examines how rapidly advancing AI is transforming medical practices and, more broadly, reshaping our healthcare system.

① Three Minutes from Diagnosis to Prescription... How AI Is Changing the 'Golden Hour'

② "AI Lets Healthcare Staff Spend More Time by the Patient's Side"

③ Sharper Than the Human Eye... AI Fills Healthcare Gaps in Local Clinics

④ "AI Never Tires—The Ultimate Navigation System for Doctors"

⑤ "Top-Tier Care Even in Rural Areas"... Why the Government Is Rolling Up Its Sleeves for Medical AI

⑥ "A Supercar With No Road to Drive On"... The Reality of Public Healthcare in the Provinces

⑦ Overcoming Cost Gaps and Data Fragmentation... The Prerequisites for Sustainable AX

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Seungyeon Cho, the only surgeon at Yeongwol Medical Center in Gangwon Province, revealed that he often feels a profound sense of disconnect whenever he hears discussions about the "AI transformation (AX)" both within and around the medical community. While major hospitals in the greater Seoul area are reportedly using AI voice recognition systems to automatically record clinical notes and implementing AI surveillance in intensive care units to monitor cardiac arrest risks 24 hours a day, the reality he faces daily at a local medical site is vastly different.

"Our hospital's electronic medical record (EMR) system still frequently goes down," said Dr. Cho. "Stabilizing basic IT infrastructure is far more urgent than discussing cutting-edge AI. At regional base hospitals like local medical centers, not only is the adoption of AI out of reach, but even maintaining and servicing essential IT infrastructure is nearly impossible due to a severe lack of specialized personnel," he pointed out.

Although the government has declared a major AI transformation in healthcare and is moving quickly, there are widespread concerns that public hospitals in the provinces or primary-level clinics with limited capital and workforce could be left behind by this massive shift. Should a "double divide" emerge—an entrenched infrastructure gap between urban and rural areas now compounded by disparities in AI technology—regional health inequalities could become even more serious and uncontrollable.

Hyunwoong Shin, policy chief at Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, noted, "Among public hospitals in the provinces, many have not even managed the basic digital transformation (DX), let alone cutting-edge AI. Technology is racing ahead into the 2020s, but our systems are still stuck in the frameworks of the 2010s. It's like building a state-of-the-art supercar but only having unpaved dirt roads to drive it on," he remarked critically.

Transforming these unpaved dirt roads into highways is not something individual medical institutions can achieve on their own. To prevent healthcare polarization caused by technological disparities, the government has begun directly investing in infrastructure and is working to build a "public healthcare AI highway" that will connect medical institutions nationwide in real time. The approach involves providing government-managed ultra-high-performance computing resources for shared use, making assets that are hard for individual public hospitals to acquire on their own available via a government hub. To this end, plans are underway to prioritize allocating national GPU (graphics processing unit) resources to regional and local accountable hospitals. A "dedicated public AX network" will also be established to guarantee the safe, rapid, and leak-free transfer of sensitive patient clinical and medical data.

Efforts are also underway to develop interoperability technologies that automatically convert diverse, hospital-specific medical data into standardized formats that AI can immediately recognize. Currently, a consortium centered around major medical institutions like Seoul National University Bundang Hospital is carrying out a five-year project funded by a total of 36.1 billion won in national funds. The ultimate goal is to closely link data across primary, secondary, and tertiary hospitals, so that by sharing patient records in real time, citizens can receive uninterrupted and universal care at any healthcare institution in Korea.

Moving Between Hospitals With No Paper or CDs... "Maximizing the Efficiency of the Healthcare Delivery System"

Once such infrastructure is built, the considerable inconvenience of hauling voluminous paper medical records or diagnostic imaging CDs whenever a patient is transferred to a higher-tier general hospital will disappear. The "AI-based referral and return system," set for full rollout in the second half of this year, will seamlessly connect each hospital's EMR and Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). When a patient moves, AI will automatically summarize and organize their previous medical records and imaging data for secure transfer to the next medical institution. This is expected to significantly reduce unnecessary duplicate tests and the related medical expenses patients face.

In particular, when patients who have completed acute phase treatment at top-tier general hospitals are transferred back to community healthcare providers, AI will deliver precise follow-up care instructions and detailed clinical information. This is also expected to enhance public trust in regional hospitals and help ease the chronic crowding at large hospitals in metropolitan areas.

Policy chief Shin further explained, "We need a virtuous cycle where public healthcare lays a solid foundation as the universal infrastructure for AI utilization, upon which private healthcare can continue creative innovation. We should not leave medical AX solely to unbridled competition among individual hospitals; the public sector should lay the roads so that all citizens can benefit."

Jung Kyung-sil, policy chief at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "Close data linkage between medical institutions can be the seed of innovation that transforms the entire healthcare system. If public healthcare leads the way in building standardized AI systems, private medical institutions will naturally follow, maximizing overall efficiency in Korea's healthcare delivery system."

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