[AI Revolution](206) World's First Robotic Endoscope... MediIntech "Integrating Physical AI into Healthcare"

Interview with CEO Lee Chiwon and Vice President Kim Myungjun

Launch of AI-based robotic endoscope "Intion"

From operation to detection, endoscopy powered by AI

"Universal access to medical care through physical AI in healthcare"

"We want to capture the knowledge and skills of experienced doctors in our equipment so that more people can benefit from high-quality medical care."

Lee Chiwon, CEO of MediIntech, a company developing artificial intelligence (AI)-based endoscopic equipment and solutions, shared this vision in a recent interview with The Asia Business Daily. He expressed his ambition to improve diagnostic accuracy and ensure everyone enjoys quality medical benefits through AI endoscopic devices that have learned from the expertise of numerous medical professionals.

Lee Chiwon, CEO of Mediintech (right), and Kim Myungjun, Vice President, pose ahead of an interview with The Asia Business Daily at Mediintech in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 23rd. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang

MediIntech is a robotic endoscopy company founded in 2020 by CEO Lee Chiwon and Vice President Kim Myungjun, who previously researched surgical robots at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Graduate School of Seoul National University. The company is developing so-called "robotic endoscopes" that fully automate the previously mechanical, analog procedures. Currently, flexible endoscopes used for gastroscopy and colonoscopy have not been electrified, leading to significant demand from medical professionals for such solutions.

MediIntech officially launched its AI-powered motorized endoscopic devices, "Intion S" and "Intion S AI," on the 11th of last month. According to MediIntech, Intion is the world's first to apply robotic and physical AI technology to gastrointestinal endoscopy equipment. The company not only developed this device in-house but also handles its manufacturing entirely.

What sets Intion apart from existing endoscopic devices is that it operates based on AI. As the device moves inside the patient's body, the AI analyzes real-time video and autonomously determines its direction of movement. If a lesion such as a polyp appears in the endoscopic image, the AI detects it in real time. Currently, three companies—Olympus, Pentax, and Fujifilm—account for over 90% of the endoscopy equipment market share, but none of them support this kind of functionality.

All operations of Intion are performed under the control of a physician. Since the device moves inside the patient's organs, this is to prevent any potential damage from possible malfunctions. Vice President Kim explained, "When the AI mode is activated, the direction of movement is pre-indicated on the screen, and the device operates only after confirmation from the physician. If the device moves differently from what the medical staff expects, simply releasing the button or pedal instantly switches it to manual mode."

Lee Chiwon, CEO of MediIntech, is being interviewed by The Asia Business Daily on the 23rd at MediIntech in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang

Utilizing AI has significantly increased the probability of detecting lesions. Based on clinical trial data for approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the accuracy rate reaches approximately 99.4%. CEO Lee emphasized, "Traditional endoscopes had to be manipulated manually, leading to variations in detection rates depending on the physician's skill. By electrifying endoscopic equipment and applying AI, we have implemented a system on par with the world's best medical professionals."

The AI model uses an open-source multimodal framework capable of understanding and learning from videos and images, and has been trained on a large number of real gastrointestinal endoscopy videos. Around 120,000 video and image data, including endoscopic footage suspected of containing lesions such as polyps, have been used for training. With Seoul National University Hospital, MediIntech was selected for the "Pan-Ministerial Medical Device R&D Project," allowing it to secure anonymized training data from the hospital’s Department of Gastroenterology.

Though only recently launched, more than 10 hospitals have already adopted Intion. Major health screening centers across the country have also implemented the device. CEO Lee explained, "We have received feedback from medical staff at these hospitals that their mental fatigue has been reduced, allowing them to focus more on patient care, and that the polyp detection rate has noticeably increased."

MediIntech's goal is to become a leader in "medical physical AI." To this end, the company plans to expand its reach beyond Intion to bronchoscopic robotic systems and surgical robot platforms. CEO Lee stressed, "Ultimately, MediIntech aims for physical AI within the field of medical AI. We want to apply our technology to a variety of medical devices so that everyone can benefit from medical care."

Vice President Kim also expressed confidence, saying, "By reducing the fatigue of medical staff through our technology and providing a comfortable treatment environment, the misdiagnosis rate will decrease, resulting in safer medical care for patients."

Myeongjun Kim, Vice President of Mediintech, is being interviewed by The Asia Business Daily on the 23rd at Mediintech in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang

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