Samsung Medical Center announced Wednesday that it has been selected as the implementing institution for the Ministry of Health and Welfare's "Remote ICU Collaborative Network Project (e-ICU Project)."
Currently, only about 40% of general hospitals nationwide have dedicated intensive care specialists. The shortage extends to dedicated nursing staff, with chronic workload burdens being reported. The adequacy of intensive care units is known to vary significantly depending on hospital size. According to the Fourth ICU Adequacy Evaluation, tertiary hospitals averaged 95.3 points in overall scores, while general hospitals scored only 63.8 points.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare designed the e-ICU project to improve Korea's inadequate ICU environment by connecting regional and cooperative hospitals around hub institutions and local governments. The goal is to elevate the level of critical care treatment by using resource-rich tertiary hospitals as hubs and linking them with regional hospitals.
For this project, Seoul Medical Center, Seonam Hospital, and Hyemin Hospital will participate as cooperative institutions centered around Samsung Medical Center. A total of 2 billion won ($1.4 million) in project funding, including national and local government funds, will be provided, with plans to complete platform construction and establish operational foundations by October 31.
Samsung Medical Center established Korea's first Department of Critical Care Medicine in 2013, pioneering a paradigm shift in domestic critical care treatment. This project aims to combine the hospital's accumulated experience in critical care medicine with artificial intelligence technology. Samsung Medical Center will serve as an integrated control center, jointly responding when patients with abnormal vital signs are detected during monitoring at regional hospitals, and supporting critical patient transfers when necessary. Considering that patient monitoring methods differ among hospitals, the center will also lead the process of establishing inter-hospital standards.
The hospital also plans to develop an AI model that detects changes in critical patients' conditions to enable early clinical interventions, as well as an AI system that automatically records patient information during referrals and transfers.
"We will do our best to carry out this project to create a win-win model with regional medical institutions and provide practical assistance," said Yang Jung-hoon, Director of the Critical Care Center and Professor of Critical Care Medicine, who oversees the project.
"We expect this system will enable us to support facilities with insufficient ICU resources," said Park Seung-woo, President of Samsung Medical Center. "We hope this will develop into a sustainable system in the future."