In the near future, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) will occupy a central place in the medical supplies and equipment sector in South Korea, healthcare experts predicted on March 19, 2017, in Seoul at the 33rd Korea International Medical Clinical Laboratories and Hospital Equipment Show (KIMES).
This international summit is hosted every year by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare. This year, about 1,300 medical instrument manufacturers from both South Korea and abroad attended the event to showcase their latest medical products.
South Korea: 940,000 new jobs will be created by 2020 in the medical industry
« An era of future medicine has opened with the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), robots and the Internet of Things (IoT), said during the opening ceremony Health Minister Chung Chin-yeob. South Korea should prepare to nurture the medical device sector. »
Medical robots are increasingly used in operating theaters in South Korea. This increasing deployment is partly due to the support of the Korean government in the field of healthcare and specifically in the advanced medical equipment sector.
The government said it will also expand the budget dedicated to research and development of various medical devices. He also wants to put effort into improving distribution channels to further promote exports. Goal: to make South Korea a global biotech and medical industry hub.
940,000 new jobs will be created by 2020 in the industry, the government also said. This project could male the country’s leading growth industry after IT.
Market experts who attended the KIMES show believe that the development of robotics and artificial intelligence on the South Korean healthcare market is expected to increase in the coming years because also the first feedback from local hospitals is positive, on the part of the medical staff, faster and more efficient, as well as patients, who can have a better health care offer.
KIMES: South Korea in the spotlight
The South Korean market was well represented at the KIMES show. Among the exhibitors:
- Curexo. The company unveiled its latest surgical robots, developed through a joint project with Hyundai Heavy Industries.
- Samsung Electronics. The group said to have focused on access to care, accuracy and efficiency for its latest products, including GM85, a mobile digital radiography (DR) system providing mobility, enhanced user-convenience and a high image quality.
- Selvas AI . The company highlighted its AI-based medical speech transcription solution, Selvy MediVoice. Based on deep learning algorithm, the performance is enhanced with additional add-on features optimized for transcription of medical treatment, surgery, reading, and consultation.
The firm also presented Selvy Checkup, a heath checkup machine to monitor the patients’ health status.
KIMES: over 30,000 medical equipment were showcased to attract buyers
Over 30,000 advanced medical supplies and equipment were exhibited at the KIMES by leading tech companies in the industry and major research centers in order to grab the attention of international buyers.
Among them, there was IBM. The US group presented Watson, a supercomputer based on artificial intelligence that can diagnose and treat cancer more accurately than the tools currently available on the market.
The system was adopted in 2016 by Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Seoul for the first time in the world. Andrew Norden, deputy chief health officer at IBM Watson Health, said the AI devices developed by IBM, such as Watson, were created to help doctors and not to replace them.
