Ministry of Health and Welfare unveils AI healthcare plan

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday that the government will roll out a 12-task AI healthcare strategy to fill regional care gaps as demand rises in a super-aged society and medical staff shortages deepen. The plan is built around consumer-focused AI healthcare innovation, a nationwide digital foundation and a sustainable medical-AI ecosystem.

Health branches in townships and villages without assigned public-health doctors are forecast to increase from 730, or 59.5 percent, in 2025 to 1,083, or 86.9 percent, in 2027. The government plans AI tools for image reading, automated clinical records and chronic-disease management at public health centers, branches and primary-care providers in medically underserved areas, as well as pilot remote home-based consultations for island and mountainous communities. It said the tools would help ease gaps caused by staff shortages and reduce clinicians' workloads.

Daegu will host a pilot of an integrated emergency AI platform in the second half of this year, offering real-time analysis from ambulance transport through hospital selection to minimize transfer delays. The national GPU-based public healthcare AI platform will connect 72 responsible medical institutions, beginning with nine institutions in the second half, expanding to 30 in 2027 and reaching all 72 by 2029.

The national bio-big-data project is to initially open data covering 120,000 people in the second half, expanding to more than 1 million people in 2032. Development of a Korean sovereign medical AI based on domestic clinical data and proprietary models is set to begin in earnest in 2027. The plan also calls for high-performance AI analysis to support development of new drugs and physical AI.

At the 12th National Policy Coordination Meeting, Prime Minister Han Seong-sook said, "Announcing measures is not the end of the job, but the beginning. We will pursue them responsibly to the end so that today's discussion brings changes to everyday life."