The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) is launching a full-scale "Medical AX (AI Transformation)" initiative to apply artificial intelligence across the entire chronic disease management process. The plan aims to restructure the chronic disease management system by integrating AI into the full cycle of medical services, from personal health management to local clinics and university hospitals.
The ministry announced on the 31st that it will pursue the "AX-Sprint" program targeting chronic disease patients. The initiative is part of a government-wide AI transformation project, with the AX-Sprint program totaling 754 billion won across all sectors. The ministry will invest 45 billion won in the healthcare segment.
A total of 9 billion won will be allocated specifically to the chronic disease AI initiative. The core objective is to verify the effectiveness of AI-based services in actual medical settings across five categories and six projects, covering health management, clinical support, and inter-institutional coordination.
In personal health management, AI services will be introduced to integrate and analyze lifestyle data such as blood sugar and blood pressure levels, guiding individuals toward customized healthy behaviors. The goal is to reduce health disparities among individuals and prevent the worsening of chronic diseases.
AI applications will also expand in clinical settings. The system will automatically record consultations between patients and medical staff, assist in reading diagnostic images such as X-rays, and provide patient-tailored educational materials based on clinical data. The aim is to reduce the administrative burden on medical professionals while improving diagnostic accuracy.
Inter-institutional coordination will also be enhanced through AI. Patient information will be summarized and generated based on electronic medical records (EMR) to support referrals and transfers from local medical institutions to regional and tertiary hospitals. Integration with picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) will improve the efficiency of medical image reading and transmission. A telemedicine consultation model connecting local medical institutions with specialists is also included in the pilot program.
Through this initiative, the ministry plans to simultaneously achieve three objectives: strengthening public health management, narrowing regional health gaps, and improving the efficiency of the public healthcare delivery system. Given that chronic diseases require long-term management, the integration of AI-based data analysis and predictive capabilities is expected to reduce medical costs and improve health outcomes.
The ministry will begin soliciting implementing agencies from April 1 and plans to select operators by May. Selected institutions will begin full-scale pilot operations this year. "Based on this initiative, we plan to build a 'Public Healthcare AI Highway' in the second half of this year that will enable regional hub medical centers and local responsible medical institutions to jointly utilize medical AI," said Kim Hyun-sook, Director-General for Advanced Medical Support.