Health ministry briefs researchers on AI-era data rules ahead of November guideline revision

The health ministry said Friday it held a training session for medical, academic and industry researchers on the safe use of health and medical data, ahead of a planned revision of its guidelines next month.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Health Information Service and the Korean Society of Medical Informatics hosted the 2026 second-half regular training at the Booyoung Taepyeong Building convention hall in Seosomun, Seoul. The session was aimed at explaining the direction of the sixth revision of the Health and Medical Data Utilization Guidelines, due in November, and at strengthening researchers' practical skills in applying artificial intelligence to data research. The revision is being drawn up to keep pace with advances in AI, the ministry said, with public comment running from Oct. 28 to Nov. 3 before the sixth version is issued in November.

The programme comprised three presentations and two hands-on sessions. Yoon Hyun-jun, a ministry official, outlined the background and content of the guideline revision. Yoo So-young, a professor at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, covered new standards for institutional Data Review Boards and key issues in practice, including shared review boards and joint reviews with institutional review boards. Yoon Hong-seok of Seoul National University Hospital addressed the safe de-identification and use of genomic data, a high-risk category.

In the practical sessions, Yoo Seong-kyung, a Data Review Board secretary at Yonsei University Health System, presented cases of medical data use in research, including ways to use cloud services after review board approval. A question-and-answer session and panel discussion on AI-based research, chaired by Yang Hyun-jong of Soonchunhyang University Hospital, closed the programme.

Choi Kyung-il, who heads the ministry's advanced medical support office, said: "We prepared this in-depth training to resolve the practical difficulties researchers face on site, such as Data Review Board approval or de-identification. We will create a research ecosystem where researchers can use data safely and quickly under clearer standards and lead the global medical AI field."