KT announced that it has been selected for the second consecutive year as the operator of the '2018 ICT-based Medical System Entry Project,' which is organized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and entrusted to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute.

KT was selected as an operator for the ICT-based medical system expansion in 2017 and successfully carried out a project to establish digital healthcare solutions and platforms in 12 hospitals in Almaty, Aktobe, and East Kazakhstan. Following last year, it has once again been recognized as Korea's leading digital healthcare company.

Russian Railways, with which KT is conducting a digital healthcare pilot project in 2018, is one of the world's top three railway transport companies engaged in passenger rail transport and operates 173 hospitals across Russia. In December 2017, KT signed a business agreement with Russian Railways for a digital healthcare project and agreed to pilot a mobile health diagnostic solution capable of providing primary care at station hospitals and on trains. Since then, KT has been reviewing the scale of the project and the required budget.

KT, together with Bundang Seoul National University Hospital, will establish a remote consultation system between five regional hospitals affiliated with Russian Railways and the Moscow Central Hospital (base hospital) by June. In addition, it will conduct a pilot project to establish a telemedicine system on the Trans-Siberian Railway by the end of the year. KT will be responsible for building and supplying digital healthcare solutions, while Seoul National University Bundang Hospital is scheduled to handle medical consultations between Korea and Russia and training local medical staff based on diagnostic results.

The Trans-Siberian Railway, which takes about 6 nights and 7 days to travel from Vladivostok in the Russian Far East to its final destination, Moscow, is equipped with only a limited number of diagnostic devices, such as thermometers and blood pressure monitors, despite being a long-distance route. Consequently, it was difficult to check the health status of passengers who require frequent health checks, such as those with cardiovascular disease or pregnant women, or to identify patients with abnormal abdominal organs requiring rapid medical attention, such as those with kidney, liver, or gallbladder problems.

KT plans to establish a mobile health diagnostic solution integrated with ICT technology on the Trans-Siberian Railway, creating an environment where diseases such as cardiovascular (angina, myocardial infarction), respiratory diseases, diabetes, and prostate cancer can be rapidly diagnosed using small amounts of blood and urine anytime and anywhere; abnormalities in abdominal organs like the kidneys, liver, and gallbladder can be checked through simple ultrasound examinations; and ultrasound examinations of the fetus in pregnant women, as well as basic musculoskeletal and vascular tests, can be performed.

In particular, KT's digital healthcare platform embeds Bluetooth and Wi-Fi communication capabilities into mobile diagnostic devices, enabling the management of patient diagnostic data history or direct storage in mobile electronic medical records (Mobile EMR). Furthermore, by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) functions, such as machine learning-based chest X-ray interpretation, it facilitates more precise and accurate diagnoses.

Ko Yun-jeon, Head of KT’s Future Business Development Group, stated, “We expect to successfully carry out this public offering project based on the digital healthcare business capabilities KT has steadily built up,” adding, “We plan to make a full-scale entry into the Russian market next year across the entire healthcare business sector, including hospital ICT (health checkup centers, nursing hospitals, etc.), online telemedicine, and healthcare platforms.” "To this end, we are enhancing our platform with AI and big data analysis modules, and accelerating strategic partnerships with local Russian operators, including cooperation on eHealth projects with Sberbank, Russia's largest state-owned bank," they stated.

Jeon Sang-hoon, President of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, stated, “The convergence of healthcare and IT has now firmly established itself as a global trend, and Seoul National University Bundang Hospital is making various efforts to enter the global market through this,” adding, “With the selection of this project, we would like to showcase the excellent capabilities of South Korea’s medical ICT to Russia.”