The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the National Information Society Agency (NIA) will begin accepting applications on Tuesday for a project to support the transition of public hospital information systems to artificial intelligence (AI)-based cloud services, the ministry said. Applications will be accepted through Dec. 22.
The project, a collaboration among MSIT, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), the National Medical Center, and regional medical centers, aims to migrate public hospitals' information systems to private-sector AI-powered Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms. The goal is to swiftly replace aging hospital information systems, which were individually built under a system integration (SI) model, with the latest private-sector SaaS solutions.
Companies seeking to participate must provide AI-SaaS offerings that reflect the characteristics of public medical institutions, which carry out public health policies such as emergency response to infectious diseases and care for vulnerable populations. Applicants must either upgrade existing SaaS-based hospital information systems they already operate, develop new ones within the budget, or present a proof-of-concept roadmap for full deployment at public medical institutions.
To expand AI adoption in the public medical sector, the services must include the full range of hospital information system functions, including five core systems, along with generative AI-powered clinical support (such as summarizing past medical records) and automation of administrative tasks (including administration, billing, and insurance). To enable public medical institutions to contract for the developed services conveniently, compliance with security guidelines is mandatory, including digital service registration, the Cloud Security Assurance Program (CSAP), and the National Network Security Framework (N2SF).
Through the project, MSIT and MOHW aim to transition the existing hospital information systems of the National Medical Center and Seoul Medical Center to private AI-based SaaS platforms by next year. The ministries plan to expand the initiative to 35 regional medical centers nationwide, including Daegu Medical Center, by securing additional budgets going forward.
"When private AI-SaaS-based hospital information systems are introduced at public medical institutions that have been using aging SI-based systems, we expect budget savings along with AX innovation in the public medical sector," said Choi Dong-won, MSIT's director general for AI infrastructure policy. "Based on close cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and public medical institutions, we will do our utmost to ensure AI-SaaS takes root in all public medical institutions."
Details of the program and application forms are available on the MSIT and NIA websites beginning Tuesday.
