SaMD market continues to grow by incorporating artificial intelligence and big data
Used in image analysis, PTSD treatment, robotic surgery, and personalized care
Korea Leads Global AI Healthcare Market with 5G Network

Recently, in the healthcare industry, SaMD (Software as Medical Device) services that integrate software such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence are attracting attention.

Healthcare is expected to provide new forms of medical services in the next 10 years, including automation of medical institution operations, support for precision surgery, and prediction of disease and mortality rates, thanks to advances in cloud technology and big data collection and analysis technology.

American investment firm Benhamou Global Ventures estimates that investment in artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector will reach $6.6 billion in 2021, and consulting firm Accenture predicts that artificial intelligence technology could save $150 billion annually by 2026.

According to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, the global AI healthcare market size is expected to grow rapidly from USD 71.3 million (KRW 80 billion) in 2015 to USD 754.7 million (KRW 847.5 billion) in 2020.

In particular, the healthcare industry is the field with the highest growth potential among the entire artificial intelligence market, with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 60.3%.
In terms of market size by healthcare technology, machine learning including deep learning had the highest share of approximately 69.3%, followed by natural language processing (16.5%), image recognition (13.3%), and voice recognition (0.9%).

Google and IBM also pointed to the healthcare industry as the top priority for AI use. According to IBM, the amount of medical information data generated by a single individual in their lifetime amounts to 1 million gigabytes.


Artificial intelligence used in medical image analysis
The types of medical artificial intelligence are largely divided into three: ▲analysis of complex medical data and derivation of insights ▲analysis and interpretation of imaging medical and pathological data ▲monitoring and prevention/prediction of continuous data.

“Medical imaging is no longer focused on how much AI can be like a human being,” said a doctor at a Silicon Valley hospital. “There is a difference between medical AI simply being accurate and it being able to treat as well as a doctor.”

Artificial intelligence is now focusing on how well it can predict a patient's condition and how it can assist doctors in their medical practice.

Looking at the actual speed of development in the medical industry, the most common use of AI is in image analysis. In radiology and pathology, AI is being used to interpret skin cancer, diabetic retinopathy, and assist in the detection of polyps in colonoscopies. The market size of medical image interpretation technology using artificial intelligence is expected to reach 2 billion dollars (about 2 trillion won) by 2023.

Treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with VR/AR Technology
The medical community has recently been utilizing software technologies such as VR and AR to treat PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). This is a medical technology that focuses on the fact that one of the major characteristics of PTSD patients is that they have difficulty recalling painful memories from the past.

According to the research results, 20 patients showed significant improvement after receiving treatment using VR/AR, and 16 of the 20 no longer suffered from PTSD after treatment.

Treatment using VR/AR is a treatment method already being used in countries such as the United States, and it was calculated that the average PCL-M score of all patients was reduced to 35.6 (previously 54.4) after treatment.

Growth of domestic AI healthcare with 5G network
Digital healthcare is expected to grow even more rapidly as we enter the era of commercialization of 5G technology. According to Ericsson’s research, the digital healthcare market using 5G technology is expected to grow to $76 billion by 2026.

5G service reduces latency between devices to 0.002 seconds, allowing doctors to perform surgery right next to a patient. In China, remote surgery to implant a brain stimulator for a patient with Parkinson's disease via a 5G network has already been successful, adding to its significance.

Although the domestic AI healthcare market share is low compared to the US, Japan, and Europe, experts predict that it will show rapid growth based on 5G and ICT infrastructure.

According to the Markets and Markets report, Korea's AI healthcare market share is 5.7%, lagging behind the US (32.1%), Germany (8.8%), China (8.5%), and the UK (7.1%). However, according to a market report published by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, the CAGR of the domestic AI healthcare market was 70.4%, which was higher than the average annual growth rate (60.3%) of the global AI healthcare market.

5G networks will contribute to realizing rapid and accurate precision diagnosis, consistent personalized disease prediction and prevention, and measurement and treatment without space-time constraints.

The medical field, which applies deep learning, image and natural language processing technology, voice recognition, statistical analysis, big data, cloud computing, robotics, etc., is working to improve the quality of medical services by utilizing ICT technology in diagnostic imaging, healthcare IT, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals.

Digital healthcare is gaining attention as a solution to the aging society problem
Korea is a country with the fastest aging population in the world (average 3.3%), and the digital healthcare market is It is expected to contribute to reducing medical expenses. According to the UN report, the form of disease outbreak is changing from infectious diseases to chronic diseases.

Considering that the main cause of chronic diseases is bad lifestyle habits, the advancement of artificial intelligence technology is expected to help prevent diseases by being used to predict the timing of disease onset or to provide personalized diagnosis and lifestyle information.

Wearing wearable devices equipped with artificial intelligence to measure electrocardiograms and predict sepsis is already a reality in our daily lives. From the perspective that the goal of digital medicine is to become a routine treatment, the value of the digital therapeutics market can be seen as limitless.

2020: The Year of the Digital Therapeutics Industry
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy selected digital therapeutics as a key word for 2020, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced plans to establish guidelines. Experts predict that 2020 will be the first year of the domestic digital therapeutics industry.

In addition, as domestic medical device startups utilizing artificial intelligence are recognized in the global market, it can be said that Korea's smart medical market has very high growth potential. The fact that the country has a 5G technology network that meets the ultra-high speed and ultra-low latency requirements, which are key elements of digital healthcare, is also a positive sign.
In Korea, each hospital still uses different medical terms and formats, which is an obstacle to the use of artificial intelligence. In addition, since the medical industry is a field that deals with patients’ personal information, privacy issues remain a challenge to be overcome.

However, judging from the continued spread of the so-called self-health monitoring trend, which involves easily recording and managing one's health status, such as the amount of one's food intake, blood pressure, and the amount of exercise one does have in daily life through smart devices or sensor technology, the digital healthcare sector is likely to serve as an opportunity to create a new market.