Korea’s medical care is evaluated as the best in the world. The number of foreign patients visiting Korea is increasing every year, and overseas medical staff are continuing to learn advanced medical techniques. Behind the fact that a country that has been nothing short of the barren land of Western medicine has been able to take such a leap forward is constant innovation that is always ahead of its time.
Just as a new paradigm of Western medicine entered Joseon’s land 142 years ago, today we are at the beginning of the era of “digital healthcare” led by vast amounts of data and artificial intelligence (AI). When it comes to AI in hospitals, they often imagine a “all-round automation system” that diagnoses and treats all diseases with just a drop of blood or a video without a doctor. However, the nature of AI encountered in the medical field is different. Medical AI is a “sophisticated stethoscope” that comes closest to a patient’s life and a “wise assistant” who helps medical staff.
For example, Northwestern Medicine introduced AI to shorten the time to write an X-ray reading report from 75 seconds to 45 seconds per case. It is meaningful in that it is not just time saving, but that medical staff have created more room to focus on patients. The Mayo Clinic is also an AI-based early warning system for intensive care units to detect patients at risk of sepsis and cardiac arrest early, and is achieving a reduction in the actual mortality rate.
Severance Hospital has also established a “real-time patient monitoring system” and an “AI early warning system” in the intensive care unit as well as in the ward. It is a system that analyzes a patient’s biometric signals in real time and sends signals to medical staff before a dangerous situation occurs. As a result of the pilot operation of 6,112 people, unnecessary notifications were reduced and the accuracy of predicting cardiac arrest was 96%. This is the result of the hospital’s determination not to miss a single life through technology.
AI is breaking down even the physical boundaries of hospitals. Traditionally, the role of the hospital was over once the patient was discharged, but now it continues outside the hospital as well. In Korea, the condition of discharged patients is monitored through a smart hospital system, and customized health care using AI chatbots and mobile healthcare is becoming increasingly common. Severance Hospital also introduces digital treatment devices (DTx) to compensate for gaps in treatment and management that may occur outside the hospital. It also applies to administrative processes where patients feel tired, such as appointments, waiting, and receiving beyond the medical field, and helps to focus on recovery rather than discomfort.
There are also concerns that AI will replace many areas of healthcare. But the essence of healthcare is empathy and trust. No matter how sophisticated the technology becomes, it is up to humans to read patients’ anxiety and caress their minds. AI frees medical staff from repetitive and mechanical tasks, looking patients in the eye more often and giving them time to hold hands once more. Paradoxically, the value of ‘care’ that only humans can do will shine even more as technology becomes more advanced. Hospital AI innovation should go beyond ‘High-Tech’ and aim for ‘High-Touch’. When AI becomes not a cold algorithm but a warm technology that touches the patient’s heart, the future hospital is finally completed.
[Lee Kang Young, director of Severance Hospital]
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