Samsung Medical Center said Monday it has launched an AX (Artificial Intelligence Transformation) Task Force to drive an AI-led transformation across all areas including medical care, research, and patient experience.
The AX Task Force, built on the foundation of the existing Digital Innovation Task Force, will be reorganized as a dedicated unit overseeing AI, which the hospital views as the backbone of future healthcare. While the previously established AI Strategy Committee will serve as the governance body setting direction, the AX Task Force will oversee execution to ensure AI takes root across the organization. The inaugural head of the AX Task Force is Lee Kyu-sung, a professor of urology, who previously led the Digital Innovation Task Force and spearheaded the "AI-based Research Commercialization Platform and Medical AI Research" initiative, producing 44 published papers, 26 patent applications, and one technology transfer. "Samsung Medical Center will undergo a major transformation in which AX becomes embedded across all areas," Lee said. "The newly launched organization will optimize AI technology for actual work based on voices from the field and provide close support for all related processes."
Samsung Medical Center previously laid the groundwork for a cloud-based infrastructure by relocating its data center to Sangam. The hospital plans to accelerate its AX initiative by upgrading SMC-GPT, its conversational AI technology, on a cloud-based foundation. SMC-GPT, dubbed an "in-hospital AI assistant," supports medical record summaries, document drafting assistance, and guidance on hospital protocols and work processes, in addition to handling work-related queries. The hospital plans to expand SMC-GPT's role as an AI interface connected to medical robots and automation systems. It will also unveil DAIA, an AI service linked with DARWIN, the hospital's internal medical information system. DAIA assists in searching and analyzing electronic medical records (EMR), summarizes patient information, and converts conversations between medical staff and patients into text for inclusion in medical records.
To enhance the patient experience through AX, the hospital will revamp its website to introduce features connecting patients and medical staff through data. Biometric data collected via smartphones or smart devices will be linked with "My Data," which patients enter regarding their own symptoms, and reflected in charts so medical staff can review them during consultations. S-CARENet, the platform previously used to ensure care continuity with regional medical institutions, will be revamped to allow partner hospitals to book appointments at Samsung Medical Center directly and conduct online remote consultations and medical advisory. In addition, OCR (Optical Character Recognition, a technology that converts characters in images or printed documents into digital text data) capture functionality will be upgraded to allow the main hospital to view partner hospitals' electronic records, enabling smooth collaborative care without patients needing to bring separate documents.
"Medical AI will evolve in a direction that saves lives, narrowing the gap between technology and people and realizing patient-centered care," Lee said. "We will lead the AX transformation with the determination to build a model for the future of medical AI and set the standard."
